adaptec 2940

adaptec 2940

[David]

> it's a funny old world - this morning i awoke to mail from ngr asking if
> i had any adaptec docs, he felt compelled to write a driver. and yesterday i
> finished a first pass on the virge chip for aux/vga (it's just a trio64 more
> or less, there's a little twiddling to get the cursor working above 1024x768;
> the /vx chip will require a little more fiddling but i don't have one of
> those to try. in fact, if you are prepared to do without the hardware cursor
> above 1024x768 you can just give the ctlr entry in /lib/vgadb for your card
> as 'trio64' and it should work).

Indeed, that's exactly what I've been doing!  (I guessed that the card was
trio64-compatible...).  I'm kind of interested in the advanced features
of the card, such as bus-mastering DMA, and scaling video data...  This
card is good; even without using the DMA, the screen updates  are fast.
I've been running inferno in an 8-1/2 window without noticing any slowdown
from the crummy old graphics model :-)  Of course, having a fast processor
helps!  (150MHz P6).

adaptec 2940

[forsyth]

>>it's a funny old world - this morning i awoke to mail from ngr asking if
>>i had any adaptec docs, he felt compelled to write a driver. and yesterday i
>>finished a first pass on the virge chip for aux/vga (it's just a trio64 more

good lord, rupert sheldrake was right!

adaptec 2940

[jmk]

it's a funny old world - this morning i awoke to mail from ngr asking if
i had any adaptec docs, he felt compelled to write a driver. and yesterday i
finished a first pass on the virge chip for aux/vga (it's just a trio64 more
or less, there's a little twiddling to get the cursor working above 1024x768;
the /vx chip will require a little more fiddling but i don't have one of
those to try. in fact, if you are prepared to do without the hardware cursor
above 1024x768 you can just give the ctlr entry in /lib/vgadb for your card
as 'trio64' and it should work).

--jim

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From: caldo.demon.co.uk!forsyth
Message-Id: <199705300055.UAA25209@cse.psu.edu>
To: cse.psu.edu!9fans
Date: Fri, 30 May 1997 01:45:03 BST
Subject: Re: adaptec 2940
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>>P.S. S3 very kindly sent me the full details on their ViRGE chip;
>>at least some companies are being good to developers...

i've always found S3 and their associates very helpful indeed,
with reasonable programming manuals sent by return of post.

the good thing about the PC world is that for any interesting function
you can usually find at least one decent card or device for which its manufacturer
can provided usable documentation.

adaptec 2940

[forsyth]

>>P.S. S3 very kindly sent me the full details on their ViRGE chip;
>>at least some companies are being good to developers...

i've always found S3 and their associates very helpful indeed,
with reasonable programming manuals sent by return of post.

the good thing about the PC world is that for any interesting function
you can usually find at least one decent card or device for which its manufacturer
can provided usable documentation.

adaptec 2940

[forsyth]

if you're having trouble getting Adaptec to behave like human beings,
and their ability to be helpful persists in remaining `on back order',
i can put in a timely plug for the NCR/Symbios cards.  using
ngr@symbionics.co.uk's Plan9 driver -- a fraction of the size
and complexity of Certain Others -- i've been pleased with the cards,
and the driver's performance.  it works very well indeed with our
4.5Gb IBM Wide Ultra Buzzword SCSI drive.
we've got one in our Plan 9 file server.

adaptec 2940

[David]

> 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.

Interesting.  After I wrote that last mail, I located the 1-800 number
and ordered the 7880 docs.  The lady I spoke to said it would take
about 7-10 days for the docs to reach me.  She didn't attempt to verify
whether I was "certain people" or not.  Perhaps verification consists
of shredding my request when it reaches the distribution centre because
my address is not internal to Adaptec?  I certainly hope not!

> 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/.

The driver contains references to the manual (for the 7770) and
the 1-800 number they used to get it.  So, apparently this works
(or worked) for somebody!

P.S. S3 very kindly sent me the full details on their ViRGE chip;
at least some companies are being good to developers...

adaptec 2940

[Steven]

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/.

adaptec 2940

[David]

>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.

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...) :-)