Subject: Re: SCSI network
To: Eduardo E. Horvath <eeh@one-o.com>
From: Matthew Jacob <mjacob@feral.com>
List: tech-kern
Date: 10/17/1999 15:42:24
The firmware which is currently in the tree is the initiator/target
firmware. This is for the Qlogic 10X0 PCI SCSI cards, the Qlogic 1080/12X0
LVD and dual bus cards, and the Qlogic 2100/2200 Fibre Channel cards. The
file asm_sbus.h *does* contain a hacked up version of the 7.55 PCI f/w
that works in target mode (but not reliably in initiator mode) for the
ISP1000 chipsets.

These firmware sets work quite well and has been in use by me under a
Solaris driver (and briefly for evaluation purposes under Linux version of
Qlogic NetBSD driver) for well over a year.

Within the next month or so, the target driver code will be integrated. I
am currently contracted to do this for FreeBSD and when that gets done,
all but the CAM target mode framework can be nobrainered into NetBSD.

With respect to NetBSD, there is currently some fuss over the Qlogic
copyrights on this f/w which I'm hoping get resolved by Monday. If not,
then the f/w will have to come out of the tree and other methods of
loading it into cards will have to be thought out. The simultaneous target
mode function is yet another reason why I did not deem the f/w resident on
the cards sufficient.

You only really need an NDA for the firmware *source*. Or at least, so the
folks at Qlogic have always assured me. Hopefully they'll finally back
this with some paperwork too.

So, sorry, Ed- for the Qlogic you're wrong I believe. For the Adaptec or
BusLogic, insofar as NetBSD is concerned you may be right.

On Sun, 17 Oct 1999, Eduardo E. Horvath wrote:

> 
> > > Still, there may be SCSI adaptors which have a complete initiator
> > > implementation, including reselection (after disconnect) but simply
> > > don't support target mode.
> > 
> > Does anyone know of any such SCSI adapter?  In particular, does anyone
> > know of any such SCSI adapter for any hardware NetBSD runs on or is
> > likely to run on?
> 
> The QLogic ISP adapters need special `firmware' that supports target
> mode.  This firmware is in assembly language and controlls all the
> chip's hardware.  QLogic only releases sources under NDA, and you
> wouldn't want to start hacking on 30K lines of legacy assembly code
> anyway.  I don't know whether it's available for the ISP 1000 (SBus
> card), but I don't believe it is.  It is available for the ISP 1040
> (PCI), but there are some hardware differences, so I doubt the target
> mode firmware will work.  And since QLogic considers the ISP 1000 a
> dead product, if it doesn't exist yet it is unlikely ever to do so.
> 
> So to answer your question, that's a card that has a complete
> initiator implementation, including reselection, but does not support
> target mode and is unlikely ever to do so.
> 
> =========================================================================
> Eduardo Horvath				eeh@one-o.com
> 	"I need to find a pithy new quote." -- me
> 
>