IBM fast/wide RAID (Mylex DAC960P) in Server 520
Fred Mau
second flash chip socket is empty. The Mylex docs imply that I can't upgrade
to the latest firmware unless I start out at at least 3.x, which apparently
uses both flash chips.
Can I make this board 3.x-compatible MERELY by adding a second flash chip to
the empty socket and then loading the newer flash program ? Or am I forever
stuck at 2.x with this board ?
- FM -
Louis Ohland
Kenneth Seefried
<nospam....@attbi.com> wrote:
>
>Can I make this board 3.x-compatible MERELY by adding a second flash chip to
>the empty socket and then loading the newer flash program ?
I think not, but it would be trivial to try it.
>Or am I forever
>stuck at 2.x with this board ?
You used to be able to order a 3.x upgrade (i.e. 2 flash chips) from
Mylex tech support for not a lot of money. I don't know if that's
still an option.
FWIW...You can run Linux (at least) on a single flash DAC960 with
firmware version 2.73-0-00 (downloadable from the mylex web site)
according to the latest driver release notes, if that is your concern.
Ken
Peterwendt
The only -probably working but yet untested- method to get the old single-flash
960P to a BIOS 3.x seem to include externally copying of the 28F1001 chips. You
need two chips, erase them, then copy the firmware with an Eprommer into the
lower / upper 128K. Each chip is 128K x 8 bit. The one actually present on the
960P is only the lower. The socket for the upper memory range is yet
unpopulated.
I'd tried stuffing in an empty 128K chip into that socket and then flash to 3.x
but the only thing I got was a Raid-Adapter firmware error with the second chip
installed right after power on and the "Flasher" software refused to run the
upgrade.
Too bad.
Very friendly greetings from Peter in Germany
http://www.mcamafia.de/mcapage0/mcaindex.htm
Fred Mau
news:20030606100359...@mb-m05.aol.com...
> Hi Fred !
>
> The only -probably working but yet untested- method to get the old
single-flash
> 960P to a BIOS 3.x seem to include externally copying of the 28F1001
chips. You
> need two chips, erase them, then copy the firmware with an Eprommer into
the
> lower / upper 128K. Each chip is 128K x 8 bit. The one actually present on
the
> 960P is only the lower. The socket for the upper memory range is yet
> unpopulated.
>
> I'd tried stuffing in an empty 128K chip into that socket and then flash
to 3.x
> but the only thing I got was a Raid-Adapter firmware error with the second
chip
> installed right after power on and the "Flasher" software refused to run
the
> upgrade.
I may have to resort to this - I looked through the Mylex website, it looks
like I can download the latest firmware, but I don't see anything about
buying pre-loaded chips.
I've never manually burned a Flash chip, only older UV-PROM chips on a
serial burner I'd once rigged up an an Apple IIe. What do I need to know
about FLASH chips that I wouldn't know from the UV-PROM days ? Or is it
essentially the same ?
It looks like there's a variety of plans on the 'net for building prom
burners.
- FM -
Fred Mau
"Kenneth Seefried" <k...@seefried.com> wrote in message
news:95pvdvomiu5ukss62...@4ax.com...
> FWIW...You can run Linux (at least) on a single flash DAC960 with
> firmware version 2.73-0-00 (downloadable from the mylex web site)
> according to the latest driver release notes, if that is your concern.
>
> Ken
Does 2.73 support bootable CD's ? I'm currently at 2.43 which apparently
doesn't.
I eventually want to run RedHat 6.1 or 8 on this Server520, but being a
novice to Linux, I want to first set the machine up under NT4 to make sure
everything in it works.
Under NT4, the Mylex card and NT both recognize the full size of my 9.1 GB
Ultrastar, but NT won't let me create a partition larger than 2GB (even
though it says 8660 MB available). I'm hoping this is a firmware issue that
will be solved with the update.
(I also tried Win2K Server - that lets me create an initial partition the
full size, but corrupts it on a reboot)
- FM -
Louis Ohland
> Under NT4, the Mylex card and NT both recognize the full size of my 9.1 GB Ultrastar, but NT won't let me create a partition larger than 2GB (even though it says 8660 MB available).
NT cannot install on a >2GB partition, otherwise, the partition can be a
lot bigger.
Fred Mau
news:3EE3B55F...@charter.net...
Could've sworn that I've installed to 4 GB partitions before.
- FM -
Kevin Bowling
"Fred Mau" <nospam....@attbi.com> wrote in message
news:SdPEa.117485$M01.60813@sccrnsc02...
> Could've sworn that I've installed to 4 GB partitions before.
>
> - FM -
too recall installing NT on a 4.5GB Seagate Barracuda. Another apperant
loop hole on systems that don't allow you to do this is to install it on a
2GB partition then use a utility like partition magic to bring it up to full
capacity..
Peterwendt
>I've never manually burned a Flash chip, only older UV-PROM chips on a
>serial burner I'd once rigged up an an Apple IIe. What do I need to know
>about FLASH chips that I wouldn't know from the UV-PROM days ? Or is it
>essentially the same ?
These 28F-series flash chips are "byte mode" chips, which support "boot block".
Basically they can be treated like SRAMs during write - apart from the fact
that they don't loose the content after removal of power. 29F-series are
"page-mode", they need to be programmed in full blocks of 8 or 16K "per page".
Most Eprommers can burn bytemode chips like 28E series EEproms, which are also
written in a "slow direct mode" bytewise. The 28F- series algorithm should be
the same - as well as the pin-out, which is compatible as far as I recall.
Most prominent problem: the chips used on the DAC960M and 960P are PLCC and not
DIP - so the least you need is an adapter socket. I once made my own
PLCC-to-DIP converter adapter to program 27C1001 / 27C010 or 27C001
"One-Time-Programmable" ROMs for a certain purpose with my antique "SunShine"
8-Gang Eprommer. Worked with no problems.
The "Cheetah" adapter BTW has a 28F001 (also 128K x 8 = 1.024Kbit) Flash, but
*that* is a DIP-32 chip, pin- and function-compatible with the 27C001 or
27C1001 Eprom or the 611000 SRAM.
However: I did not try to program Flash Chips with that thing, but did program
28E64 8K x 8 EEproms for one of my Z80-projects on that machine. So I *guess*
it would work with the 28F-series as well.
Something about the numbers: 28F010, 28F001 are 128K x 8, 28F1024 is a 64K x 16
chip !
28F001 is "+5V Boot Block Flash Memory", 28F010 is "+5V Bulk Erase Flash"
(cannot erase single bytes except with overwriting), 28F1024 -as said- is
16-bit wide. These 28F devices need a +12V Vpp !
The 29F- series is a "5V-only Flash Memory".
On the detailled specs see the datasheets - search on Google with e.g. "28F001
datasheet" which will turn up with a lot .PDFs.
Fred Mau
> Most prominent problem: the chips used on the DAC960M and 960P are PLCC
and not
> DIP - so the least you need is an adapter socket. I once made my own
> PLCC-to-DIP converter adapter to program 27C1001 / 27C010 or 27C001
> "One-Time-Programmable" ROMs for a certain purpose with my antique
"SunShine"
> 8-Gang Eprommer. Worked with no problems.
> http://www.mcamafia.de/mcapage0/mcaindex.htm
As luck would have it, I have an older flaky Server320 motherboard that has
a 28F001 chip and a PLCC socket that I can rob from it.
- FM -
Kenneth Seefried
<nospam....@attbi.com> wrote:
>
>Does 2.73 support bootable CD's ? I'm currently at 2.43 which apparently
>doesn't.
>
I'm afraid I don't know. I don't tend to annoy my RAID controller
with CDROMs. That's what IDE controllers are for :-).
>
>I eventually want to run RedHat 6.1 or 8 on this Server520, but being a
>novice to Linux, I want to first set the machine up under NT4 to make sure
>everything in it works.
>
I can say that any Linux with a reasonably recent Mylex driver
(2.2.20, 2.4.x, 2.5.x) will boot, although some of them might need the
driver loaded seperately during install (e.g. Debian). RedHat 8 & 9
load flawlessly.
>
>Under NT4, the Mylex card and NT both recognize the full size of my 9.1 GB
>Ultrastar, but NT won't let me create a partition larger than 2GB
>
That's an NT/W2K issue, not a Mylex issue. 2GB is tops for the NT
boot drive without external magic (e.g. 3rd party boot partition
software).
Best of luck.
Ken