Hi all,

Just looking for some confirmation about whether it will be, or is, possible to boot from a SATA HDD attached to a Silicon Image based SATA controller with OS4. I've been searching around and I've found hints that UBoot supports sil based controllers and that the next update should include SATA support... just wondering if someone can either confirm or deny this form me?

@Reaps

Yes, thats no problem, from a sii3112 or 3114 thanks to Andrea ; I'm hacking 3512 support into uboot right now.

Regards,
--
Stéphane

@sg2

Cool thanks for the info. I'll just use an old ATA drive until I can get my hands on the necessary SATA gear!

@sg2

> Yes, thats no problem, from a sii3112 or 3114 thanks to Andrea ;
> I'm hacking 3512 support into uboot right now.

I have an sii3112 with a SATA harddisk attached, but I can't even partition it.
Mediatoolbox claims: "Couldn't use sii3112ide.device because there are no units attached." Am I supposed to type something in UBoot before I can use it?

Kind regards,

Dennis

@sg2

how did it go, have u fried off your uboot, ore was it a sucess

i wonder how fast does amiga 4.0 but op on your sata drive ???


corect mee iff i am worng. but SATA HHD drive is a ram block on a fast controler like scsi III on a pci slot, and you can use the ram like it was a harddisk. right ???

@retro

Hi retro. I'm not sure I undestood your question correctly, but despite all the hype, SATA is just another harddisk interface. While SATA has some very nice features and a much higher theoretical throughput than the old (E)IDE interfaces, the limiting factor in terms of speed is always going to be the harddisk itself. Performance of an ordinary SATA drive over an ordinary IDE drive (of equivalent spec) is negligable, if any, AFAIK. Speed advantages come with the higher rotational speed drives (10000+ rpm) but they also cost many $$$. Regardless, for all intents and purposes, RAM is always going to be much, MUCH faster than a harddisk. Unless you are talking about having some sort of solid state device on the harddisk controller, but even then...

Cheers!

@Reaps

Theortical throughput of SATA is higher then IDE. However, actual is only slightly ahead, at best. Most harddrives are IDE drives with a SATA interface on them instead. One notable exception is the Western Digital Raptor which is a SCSI harddrive with a SATA interface.

There are a few advantages to SATA, which may or may not be desireable to the end user. First, is the smaller connector which, in theory, should allow better case airflow and makes your wiring in the case look nicer. Second is cooler harddrives, the new SATA appear to be cooler then their IDE counterparts. Third is quietness, again newer SATA appear to be quieter then their IDE counterparts. Of course, this isn't true for every drive maker and it may or may not be desireable to the end user. I know many users that don't care if they can save money they'll do whatever is cheaper.

@Reaps

ok is the sata drive a pci slot ware there is a ram blok on ware you can install os 4.0 on and beside that there is a crontroler thats is fast as an scisi,

@retro

> ok is the sata drive a pci slot ware there is a ram blok on ware you can
> install os 4.0 on and beside that there is a crontroler thats is fast as an
> scisi

I think you got some things confused.

A couple of DIMMs on a PCI card you can use like a harddisk is called a RAM-disk. This is not the same as what we (Amiga users) normally refer to as RAM disk, ofcourse. A SerialATA harddisk looks just like any another harddisk. It is supposed to be faster then regular ATA, and is often sold as a cheap alternative for SCSI.

@all who want to know
My experience with the sil3112 controller + WD Raptor harddisk so far was very bad. First the A1 wouldn't see the HD attached to the controller. I put it in a PC to confirm it wasn't broken. After I put it back in the A1 I finally managed to partition it. The SATA drive appears to be a lot slower then the 'normal' IDE drive I already had, and the system partially froze now and then during access to the SATA drive. I'll try again when we have a more optimised and more reliable driver available.

Kind regards,

Dennis

@A3000T

on my amigaone micro ther is a ram disk that represent the ram´s on the mother board,

i rember that i readet that some pci have ram on it and u can use it for harddisk (whot you called a "ram disk" just soo wee talk about the same thing its not the RAM DISK: drive in the os i am thinken off,
but a ram hard disk, how fast can it spind op os 4.0
i am considering to get a pci rasier card and a catwasel, alone with a pci card with fireware and usb 2.0 and a ram HARD DISK ON...

can os 4.0 bee booted from a pci card with a ram harddisk and maby even make the kick start as a image file and put it on the ram disk and make it goo fast bootig

@retro

Hi Retro, I think you're talking about some form of sold-state storage (like a Compact Flash card), that lives on a PCI card that "looks like" a hard disk to the system. Yes you could boot OS 4 off one, but speed would be dependent on speed of that solid state device - in many cases, the old hard disk will probably give the solid state device a run for its money (especially in writes).

Isn't the uA1-I supposed to have a CF slot for exactly this sort of thing?

Cheers!

@Reaps

There was a thread about a PCI RAM-disk a while back. It's basically a PCI-card which can take up to 16GB of DDR memory and which will act lika a SATA-device (only using the PCI-slot to get some power) so one can connect it to a SATA controller and use it as if it were a harddrive. The RAM-disk has a battery backup which will last for 16 hours, so the computer needs to be turned on most of the time...

@AmiDog

does it work for os 4.0 ? can you install os 4.0 on it and boot up from it.

im am not interested in 16 gb i am intersted in a ram hardisk thats is fast as hell and are big anuf too os 4.0 and some programs,


even make the os partion as a rom file an put it on the disk and kick start it from the ram harddisk

Last edited by retro on 18-Jul-2005 at 12:07 AM.