adaptec 2940

[Steven Plite splite@wdni.com]

I believe it was David Hogan who once wrote:
> 
>> It tried to get the developer manual for the 2940, but those chumps from
>> adapted are really fucked up. I am gonna call up marketing and shout a
>> little a bit maybe it'll helps.
> 
> I'm also interested in the 2940 -- 2940U to be precise.  It's funny that
> you should post that message right now, because I've just started looking
> for this information.  I have recently purchased a PPro (venus motherboard)
> and a 2940U, and I intend to write full support for PCI, Plug & Play,
> and the 2940U (amongst other things...).
> 
> Anyway, the chip in the 2940U is an aic7880, made by adaptec.  Not sure
> about the non-U card, I think the part is an aic7870 or something similar
> (aic7770?  aic7xxx anyway...).  Apparently there is some 1-800 number
> you can dial to get the datasheets.

Good luck.  If you check the mail archives, you'll see that some people
have been waiting over a year (since 9/95 for me) for Adaptec to send the
docs.  It took around a year to get a programmer's manual for the old 1542C
(and I had actually asked for the 1542CF manual.)

I usually call every six months or so and they tell me "they're still on
back-order."  Last time I called, they told me they really only wanted
"certain people" to write drivers, which is why they won't send the docs.
Suffice it to say Adaptec won't be getting any more of my money.

> There's a driver for this card in FreeBSD.  It's quite complex.  The
> chip has it's own microcode engine, which you need to write code for,
> to handle the various scsi phases and pheatures.  Definately not a
> 1 weekend job.  OTOH, the card should scream along once the driver
> is written  (and debugged...) :-)

The FreeBSD/Linux driver is probably the best (only?) public source for
AIC-7xxx information.  There's a maliing list for the driver:  send
"subscribe aic7xxx" to majordomo@freebsd.org.  The list is archived at
http://confused.ume.maine.edu/~aic7xxx/.