Supporting non-commodity mainboard chipsets (2/4-way memory,
multiple-PCI) in Linux ...
I've dabbled in some searches on the 450GX chipset and glanced
through the kernel source code, but I was wondering if someone
could give me the "straight shot" to understanding non-commodity
mainboard chipsets in non-Windows OSes (Linux, FreeBSD, etc...),
or unpatched/unsupporting Windows OSes. E.g., server chipsets like
the Intel 450GX, the ServerWorks' (fka Reliance Computer
Corporation) new ServerSet IIILE/HE/WS chipsets with multiple
memory busses and multiple PCI busses.
The main driving force behind my inquiry is the ServerWorks
ServerSet IIIHE which powers the new Tyan S1867DLUAN Thunder 2500
(http://www.tyan.com/products/html/s1867.html). This product is
finally going to bring high-performance I/O to a sub-$1,000
mainboard c/o the ServerSet IIIHE. It's about time as I am sick of
seeing vendor after vendor just use a commodity i440BX/GX solution
with a single 64-bit memory channel, and a single, shared
32-bitx33MHz PCI bus (the IIIHE is a 4-way memory, although I
think Tyan uses only 2-way so it fits in a standard ATX case,
2x64-bit PCI -- one 66MHz, one 33MHz -- plus 1x32-bit PCI).
[ Hence what is _my_problem_ because (thanx to all the help on
this and other lists with my problem, which really wasn't a Linux
problem), that is my problem with my server (Linux is doing a fine
job, but the hardware cannot handle the I/O load we have on my
server because high-throughput PCI devices are contending with each
other). ]
Basically, I'm making the following assumptions and/or have the
following questions (TOTAL IGNORANCE HERE):
A. Assumption: Stock Linux, FreeBSD and even unpatched Windows
NT will work with any x86 mainboard, but will only use the
components that the BIOS reports -- e.g., on a 450NX with (2) PCI
channels and (4) Slot-2 , the older, early 2.0 kernels would work
on the board, but only use one PCI channel (or two?) and one (or
two?) processors (but not four)?
B. Assumption: It didn't take much modification to support
the 450NX and its 4-way Xeon, dual-PCI bus systems once someone
reverse engineered the actual, undisclosed Intel specifications
(e.g., detections, register settings, etc...).
C. Question: What is the status of [full] support for the
ServerWorks/RCC chipsets?
Thanx in advance, and sorry about the ignorance factor here.
-- TheBS
--
Bryan "TheBS" Smith -- Engineer, IT Professional and Hacker
E-mail: mailto:thebs@theseus.com,b.j.smith@ieee.org
Disclaimer: http://www.SmithConcepts.com/legal.html
*************************************************************
TheBS ... Serving E-mail filters to /dev/null since 1989
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