Subject: Re: Promise ultra133tx2
To: Micah <micahhiggs@yahoo.com>
From: Charles M. Hannum <mycroft@MIT.EDU>
List: port-alpha
Date: 03/13/2004 17:47:06
On Sat, Mar 13, 2004 at 05:35:38PM -0500, Sean Davis wrote:
> On Sat, Mar 13, 2004 at 08:48:44AM -0800, Micah wrote:
> > 
> > > > I heard a while back that the promise ultra133tx2 (pdc20269) card has problems on alpha.
> > > Does
> > > > anyone know the status of this card?
> > > > 
> > > 
> > > Hello, I was the one who reported problems a while back. It looks like the
> > > problem is in the card itself. You might have better luck with an Alpha that
> > > has 32-bit PCI slots (i only have 64-bit). I also suggest you try HPT cards.
> 
> Avoid the HPT366 (ATA66) at all costs, however. I haven't used other Highpoint
> chipsets, but I got no end of trouble from the HPT366 on my motherboard.
> Also, unlike the promise cards, it requires an irq for each IDE channel -
> the promise ultra100tx2 I bought to replace it only needs one irq, and runs
> a lot faster anyway, being ata100.

PCI IDE controllers in "compatibility mode" -- which builtin ones
generally are -- require two ISA IRQs, whereas controllers in "native
mode" require one PCI IRQ.  It was nothing to do with the particular
chips.