From mboxrd@z Thu Jan  1 00:00:00 1970
From: erik quanstrom <quanstro@quanstro.net>
Date: Sun, 10 Jan 2010 10:59:40 -0500
To: 9fans@9fans.net
Message-ID: <9a711122904a670b94d33b4c9fad8f0b@brasstown.quanstro.net>
In-Reply-To: <20100110133915.4D4C111803D@smtp.hushmail.com>
References: <20100110133915.4D4C111803D@smtp.hushmail.com>
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Subject: Re: [9fans] Hardware for Plan9
Topicbox-Message-UUID: bc5c1602-ead5-11e9-9d60-3106f5b1d025

> Which disk controller should I use for best performance and
> driver support?
>
> AHCI based:
> SB600
> IHC9
> Jmicron JMB363 (supported?)
>
> Marvel based:
> Marvell 88SX6081

this isn't a complete list of supported ahci or marvell
parts.  i don't know about jmicron support.  i tried
to add it without having any hardware to test.  i have
always chosen other hardware over jmicron.  it seems
to benchmark poorly and be unnecessarly incompatable.

i have not done systematic benchmarking of the
various parts.  however ..

1.  unless one needs more ports than the motherboard
offers, i would stick with on-board ports.

2.  note that the marvell 88sx card is pci-x but will
function properly in a pci slot.  the marvell 88se64*
parts are a pci-e option.

3.  if you set up a venti+fossil fileserver, you will have
a quite seeky load and the performance of the controller
should not be a big factor.  but the performance of the
disks will be.

> For network cards the intel gbe cards seems to be the best?

yes.  the 82563 and 8257[12456] are particularly good.

> Which CPU should I use? Can Plan9 use multicore processors?
> Is it right that Plan9 runs in 32 bit modus (no need for a 64 bit
> processor)?

plan 9 can use multicore processors.  but it does not recognize
the hyperthreads on core i[357] and atom processors.

- erik