[parisc-linux] A3591B (Tachyon) FC Card

[parisc-linux] A3591B (Tachyon) FC Card

[Padgett, Pat M [NTWK SVCS]]

I am interested in making this card work.  If anyone else is, I would
certainly appreciate some help!  :)

I'm trying to figure out whether it would be a good idea to use some of
the existing code in the cpqfcTS* driver (similar to the way that the
zalon7xx scsi host template calls code in the ncr53c8xx driver).
However, the cpqfcTS* code is quite a beast, perhaps writing the driver
from scratch would be better?  (Googling the list archives shows that
I'm not the only one intimidated(?) by the compaq code :)

I haven't been able to find ANY documentation on this particular card
(not counting the installation manual).  Does anyone else have docs for
this card or the Tachyon(?) chipset it uses??

I guess the icing on the cake is the fact that I don't have ANY
experience writing device drivers.  However, I was able to find an old
article by Alan Cox on how to write a simple scsi driver that has been
very helpful.  I'd appreciate any references to other docs that may be
helpful to a neophyte like myself (specifically, anything that may
explain the parisc-linux specific interfaces register_parisc_driver(),
and the GSC interfaces).

Thank you,

Pat Padgett

RE: [parisc-linux] A3591B (Tachyon) FC Card

[Joel Soete]

>
>I'm trying to figure out whether it would be a good idea to use some of
>the existing code in the cpqfcTS* driver (similar to the way that the
>zalon7xx scsi host template calls code in the ncr53c8xx driver).
>However, the cpqfcTS* code is quite a beast, perhaps writing the driver
>from scratch would be better?  (Googling the list archives shows that
>I'm not the only one intimidated(?) by the compaq code :)
>
Hi,

Because I would also like to test Tachyon based FC card on a N, I had the
opportunity to discuss by email with the maintainer of this code (iirc on
sf.net). He recognised himself that it would have to re-writte but have no
time to do :(

For my part, I didn't find much more doc on this cards and so abandon the
idea to write this code (I am also a beginner in this field).
I can just wish you better success :)

Joel



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Re: [parisc-linux] A3591B (Tachyon) FC Card

[Alan Cox]

On Mer, 2003-10-08 at 15:28, Padgett, Pat M [NTWK SVCS] wrote:
> I haven't been able to find ANY documentation on this particular card
> (not counting the installation manual).  Does anyone else have docs for
> this card or the Tachyon(?) chipset it uses??

If I remember rightly tachyon is one of the FC chipsets where you have
to implement a *lot* of higher level FC handling yourself. As to using
the compaqfc code I wish you luck, but if you do clean it up so it is
understandable and sumbit the cleanups that will in itself be a good
deed for the year 8)

> I guess the icing on the cake is the fact that I don't have ANY
> experience writing device drivers. 

FC is not the place to start. The specifications are complex, frequently
bear no relation to the real world and you have a lot more to handle
than the scsi layer itself will look after.

Re: [parisc-linux] A3591B (Tachyon) FC Card

[Martin K. Petersen]

>>>>> "Alan" == Alan Cox <alan@lxorguk.ukuu.org.uk> writes:

Alan> If I remember rightly tachyon is one of the FC chipsets where
Alan> you have to implement a *lot* of higher level FC handling
Alan> yourself. 

That's true only for the really old tachyon chips.  The TS and TL
chips supported by the Compaq driver as well as the XL2 are all recent
enough to have a fibre channel state machine on chip.

-- 
Martin K. Petersen      http://mkp.net/