267 lines
13 KiB
Plaintext
267 lines
13 KiB
Plaintext
<!-- $Id: hw.sgml,v 1.18 1996/03/26 23:22:02 mpp Exp $ -->
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<!-- The FreeBSD Documentation Project -->
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<!--
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<!DOCTYPE linuxdoc PUBLIC "-//FreeBSD//DTD linuxdoc//EN">
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-->
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<chapt><heading>PC Hardware compatibility<label id="hw"></heading>
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<p>Issues of hardware compatibility are among the most
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troublesome in the computer industry today and FreeBSD is by
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no means immune to trouble. In this respect, FreeBSD's
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advantage of being able to run on inexpensive commodity PC
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hardware is also its liability when it comes to support for
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the amazing variety of components on the market. While it
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would be impossible to provide a exhaustive listing of
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hardware that FreeBSD supports, this section serves as a
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catalog of the device drivers included with FreeBSD and the
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hardware each drivers supports. Where possible and
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appropriate, notes about specific products are included.
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As FreeBSD is a volunteer project without a funded testing
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department, we depend on you, the user, for much of the
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information contained in this catalog. If you have direct
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experience of hardware that does or does not work with
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FreeBSD, please let us know by sending email to
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<tt>doc@freebsd.org</tt>. Questions about supported hardware
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should be directed to <tt>questions@freebsd.org</tt> (see
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<ref id="eresources:mail" name="Mailing Lists"> for more
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information). When submitting information or asking a
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question, please remember to specify exactly what version of
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FreeBSD you are using and include as many details of your
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hardware as possible.
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<sect><heading>Sample Configurations<label id="hw:configs"></heading>
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<p>The following list of sample hardware configurations by no means
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constitutes an endorsement of a given hardware vendor or product by
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<em>The FreeBSD Project</em>. This information is provided only as a public
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service and merely catalogs some of the experiences that various individuals
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have had with different hardware combinations. Your mileage may vary.
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Slippery when wet. Beware of dog.
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<sect1><heading>Jordan's Picks</heading>
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<p>I have had fairly good luck building workstation and server
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configurations with the following components. I can't guarantee that
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you will too, nor that any of the companies here will remain "best buys"
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forever. I will try, when I can, to keep this list up-to-date but
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cannot obviously guarantee that it will be at any given time.
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<sect2><heading>Motherboards</heading>
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<p>The <htmlurl url="http://asustek.asus.com.tw/" name="ASUS">
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<htmlurl url="http://asustek.asus.com.tw/FTP/ASUS/Info/Spec/pi-p55tp4xe.txt"
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name="P55TP4XE">
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motherboard appears to be a good choice for mid-to-high range Pentium
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server and workstation systems. If you're really looking for performance,
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be also sure to get the <htmlurl url="http://asustek.asus.com.tw/Products/TB/mem-0002.html" name="pipelined burst cache module">. I feel that it's worth
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the extra cost. If you're looking for a 486 class motherboard, you might
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also investigate ASUS's <htmlurl url="http://asustek.asus.com.tw/FTP/ASUS/Info/Spec/pvi-486sp3.txt" name="486SP3G"> offering.
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NOTE: The Intel <htmlurl url="http://asustek.asus.com.tw/Products/TB/triton-intro.html" name="Triton"> chipset based motherboards do not offer memory
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parity logic, making it almost impossible to detect when a memory error
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has occurred. Those wishing to build highly fault-tolerant systems may
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therefore want to wait for Intel's newest generation of motherboards
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based on the Orion chipset or investigate ASUS's SiS chipset based
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motherboard, the <htmlurl url="http://asustek.asus.com.tw/FTP/ASUS/Info/Spec/pi-p55sp4.txt" name="P55SP4">. I have no personal experience with this
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motherboard and have heard mixed reports - some say it's a fine MB, others
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say that it's measurably slower than the Triton. The only undisputed
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advantage it offers is being available <em>now</em>.
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<sect2><heading>Disk Controllers</heading>
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<p>This one is a bit trickier, and while I used to recommend the
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<htmlurl url="http://www.buslogic.com" name="Buslogic"> controllers
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unilaterally for everything from ISA to PCI, now I tend to lean
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towards the <htmlurl url="http://www.adaptec.com" name="Adaptec">
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1542CF for ISA, Buslogic Bt747c for EISA and Adaptec 2940 for PCI.
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<sect2><heading>Disk drives</heading>
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<p>In this particular game of Russian roulette, I'll make few specific
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recommendations except to say "SCSI over IDE whenever you can afford it."
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Even in small desktop configurations, SCSI often makes more sense since it
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allows you to easily migrate drives from server to desktop as falling drive
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prices make it economical to do so. If you have more than one machine
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to administer then think of it not simply as storage, think of it as a
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food chain!
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<p>I do not currently see SCSI WIDE drives as a necessary expense unless
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you're putting together an NFS or NEWS server that will be doing a lot
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of multiuser disk I/O.
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<sect2><heading>CDROM drives</heading>
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<p>My SCSI preferences extend to SCSI CDROM drives as well, and the
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<htmlurl url="http://www.toshiba.com" name="Toshiba"> XM-3501B (now
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released in a caddy-less model called the XM-5401B) drive has always
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performed well for me. Generally speaking, most SCSI CDROM drives I've
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seen have been of pretty solid construction (probably because they don't
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occupy the lower end of the market, due to their higher price) and you
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probably won't go wrong with an HP or NEC SCSI CDROM drive either.
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<sect2><heading>Tape drives</heading>
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<p>I've had pretty good luck with both
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<htmlurl url="http://www.Exabyte.COM:80/Products/8mm/8505XL/Rfeatures.html"
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name="8mm drives"> from <htmlurl url="http://www.exabyte.com"
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name="Exabyte"> and
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<htmlurl url="http://www-dmo.external.hp.com:80/tape/_cpb0001.htm"
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name="4mm (DAT)"> drives from <htmlurl url="http://www.hp.com" name="HP">.
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<p>For backup purposes, I'd have to give the higher recommendation to the
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Exabyte due to the more robust nature (and higher storage capacity) of
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8mm tape.
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<sect2><heading>Video Cards</heading>
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<p>If you can also afford to buy a commercial X server for US$99 from
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<htmlurl url="http://www.xinside.com/" name="X Inside"> then I
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can heartily recommend the <htmlurl url="http://www.matrox.com/"
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name="Matrox"> <htmlurl url="http://www.matrox.com/mgaweb/brochure.htm"
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name="Millenium"> card. If free X servers are more to your
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liking, you certainly can't go wrong with one of <htmlurl url="http://www.nine.com/" name="Number 9's"> cards - their S3 Vision 868 and 968 based cards
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(the 9FX series) are pretty fast cards as well, and are supported by
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<htmlurl url="http://www.xfree86.org" name="XFree86">'s S3 server.
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<sect2><heading>Monitors</heading>
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<p>I have had very good luck with the <htmlurl url="http://cons3.sel.sony.com/SEL/ccpg/display/ms17se2.html"
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name="Sony Multiscan 17SE monitors">, as have I with
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the Viewsonic offering in the same (trinitron) tube. For larger than
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17", all I can recommend at the time of this writing is to not spend
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any less than U.S. $2,500 for a 21" monitor if that's what you really
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need. There are good monitors available in the >=20" range and there
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are also cheap monitors in the >=20" range. Unfortunately, none are
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both cheap and good!
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<sect2><heading>Networking</heading>
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<p>I can recommend the <htmlurl url="http://www.smc.com/" name="SMC">
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Ultra 16 controller for any ISA application and the SMC EtherPower
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or Compex ENET32 cards for any serious PCI based networking. Both of
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the PCI cards are based around DEC's DC21041 Ethernet controller
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chip and other cards using it, such as the Zynx ZX342 or DEC DE435,
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will generally work as well.
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<sect2><heading>Serial</heading>
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<p>If you're looking for high-speed serial networking solutions, then
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<htmlurl url="http://www.dgii.com/" name="Digi International">
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makes the <htmlurl url="http://www.dgii.com/prodprofiles/profiles-prices/digiprofiles/digispecs/sync570.html" name="SYNC/570"> series, with drivers now in
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FreeBSD-current. <htmlurl url="http://www.etinc.com"
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name="Emerging Technologies"> also manufactures a board with T1/E1
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capabilities, using software they provide.
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<p>Multiport card options are somewhat more numerous, though it has to be
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said that FreeBSD's support for <htmlurl url="http://www.cyclades.com/"
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name="Cyclades">'s products is probably the tightest, primarily as a result
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of that company's committment to making sure that we are adequately supplied
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with evaluation boards and technical specs. I've heard that the Cyclom-16Ye
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offers the best price/performance, though I've not checked the prices lately.
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Other multiport cards I've heard good things about are the BOCA and AST
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cards, and <htmlurl url="http://www.stallion.com/" name="Stallion
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Technologies"> apparently offers an unofficial driver for their
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cards at <htmlurl url="ftp://ftp.stallion.com/drivers/unsupported/freebsd/stalbsd-0.0.4.tar.gz" name="this"> location.
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<sect2><heading>Audio</heading>
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<p>I currently use the <htmlurl url="http://www.gravis.com/" name="Gravis">
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Ultrasound MAX due to its high sound quality and full-duplex audio
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capabilities (dual DMA channels). Support for Windows NT and OS/2 is
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fairly anemic, however, so I'm not sure that I can recommend it as an
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all-around card for a machine that will be running both FreeBSD and NT
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or OS/2. In such a scenario, I might recommend the <htmlurl url="http://www.creaf.com/" name="Creative Labs"> AWE32 instead.
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<sect2><heading>Video</heading>
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<p>For video capture, there's really only once choice - the
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<htmlurl url="http://www.matrox.com/" name="Matrox">
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<htmlurl url="http://www.matrox.com/imgweb/meteor.htm" name="Meteor">
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card. FreeBSD also supports the older video spigot card from
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Creative Labs, but those are getting somewhat difficult to find
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and the Meteor is a more current generation frame-grabber with
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a higher-speed PCI interface. I use one for broadcasting video
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on the MBONE and it works quite well!
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<sect><heading>Core/Processing<label id="hw:core"></heading>
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<sect1><heading>Motherboards, busses, and chipsets</heading>
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<sect2><heading>* ISA</heading>
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<sect2><heading>* EISA</heading>
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<sect2><heading>* VLB</heading>
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<sect2><heading>PCI</heading>
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<p><em>Contributed by &a.rgrimes;.<newline>25 April 1995.</em></p>
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<p>Of the Intel PCI chip sets, the following list describes
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various types of known-brokenness and the degree of
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breakage, listed from worst to best.
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</p>
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<p><descrip>
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<tag>Mercury:</tag> Cache coherency problems,
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especially if there are ISA bus masters behind
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the ISA to PCI bridge chip. Hardware flaw, only
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known work around is to turn the cache
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off.
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<tag>Saturn-I <em>(ie, 82424ZX at rev 0, 1 or 2)</em>:</tag>
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Write back cache coherency
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problems. Hardware flaw, only known work around
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is to set the external cache to write-through
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mode. Upgrade to Saturn-II.
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<tag>Saturn-II <em>(ie, 82424ZX at rev 3 or 4)</em>:</tag>
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Works fine, but many MB
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manufactures leave out the external dirty bit
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SRAM needed for write back operation. Work
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arounds are either run it in write through mode,
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or get the dirty bit SRAM installed. (I have
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these for the ASUS PCI/I-486SP3G rev 1.6 and
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later boards).
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<tag>Neptune:</tag> Can not run more than 2 bus
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master devices. Admitted Intel design flaw.
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Workarounds include do not run more than 2 bus
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masters, special hardware design to replace the
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PCI bus arbiter (appears on Intel Altair board
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and several other Intel server group MB's). And
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of course Intel's official answer, move to the
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Triton chip set, we ``fixed it there''.
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<tag>Triton:</tag> No known cache coherency or bus
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master problems, chip set does not implement
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parity checking. Workaround for parity issue.
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Wait for Triton-II.
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<tag>Triton-II:</tag> Unknown, not yet shipping.
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</descrip>
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</p>
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<sect1><heading>* CPUs/FPUs</heading>
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<sect1><heading>* Memory</heading>
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<sect1><heading>* BIOS</heading>
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<sect><heading>Input/Output Devices<label id="hw:io"></heading>
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<sect1><heading>* Video cards</heading>
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<sect1><heading>* Sound cards</heading>
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<sect1><heading>Serial ports and multiport cards</heading>
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&uart;
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&sio;
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<sect1><heading>* Parallel ports</heading>
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<sect1><heading>* Modems</heading>
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<sect1><heading>* Network cards</heading>
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<sect1><heading>* Keyboards</heading>
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<sect1><heading>* Mice</heading>
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<sect1><heading>* Other</heading>
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<sect><heading>Storage Devices<label id="hw:storage"></heading>
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&esdi;
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&scsi;
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<sect1><heading>* Disk/tape controllers</heading>
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<sect2><heading>* SCSI</heading>
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<sect2><heading>* IDE</heading>
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<sect2><heading>* Floppy</heading>
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<sect1><heading>* Hard drives</heading>
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<sect1><heading>* Tape drives</heading>
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<sect1><heading>* CD-ROM drives</heading>
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<sect1><heading>* Other</heading>
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<sect><heading>* Other<label id="hw:other"></heading>
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<sect1><heading>* PCMCIA</heading>
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