When browsing in the 4.0f patch kit 6 documentation I found
the following in the OSF440-568 patch description :
"Additionally the ITPSA driver now supports the KZPCM, 8951U,
and 8952U adapters."
Since 8952U is the part number for the generic LSILogic card,
I tried to use a LSILogic 8952U SCSI adapter with Tru64 4.0f
but it didn't work, eg. the itpsa driver complained about
an incorrect checksum.
I got responses from Seldon E. Ball Jr and Dr. Thomas Blinn
both basically saying that you need a card which is specifically
supported by the itpsa driver and that generic cards won't work.
I attach Dr. Thomas Blinn reply since it gives a good explanations
what the itpsa driver looks for when it checks if the adapter is
supported or not.
"Dr. Thomas.Blinn_at_Compaq.com" wrote:
>
> Are you trying to use a "generic" card that you bought other than from
> Compaq (or the former Digital)? The cards that work come with a special
> ROM chip that contains what amounts to a "license PAK" that represents a
> royalty paid by the vendor (Compaq/Digital) to the people who wrote the
> driver; "commodity" cards don't have the chip and don't work. I will not
> attempt to defend this implementation, but it's what it is. If you want
> a card that works you need to buy a Digital/Compaq branded card that has
> the royalty chip on it.
>
> Tom
>
> Dr. Thomas P. Blinn + UNIX Software Group + Compaq Computer Corporation
And the second response when I specifically asked him about
the statement in the patch kit docs :
"Dr. Thomas.Blinn_at_Compaq.com" wrote:
>
> I have to be completely honest in saying I have no idea what those words
> in the patch kit documentation mean. I didn't write them. I suspect it
> was written by a support engineer who had made changes in the driver to
> allow it to match up to additional LSILogic cards, including perhaps the
> generic 8952U, in the expectation that some day the driver might allow the
> use of those cards. Of course, I can also imagine there is something on
> the card that the driver is reading that has an invalid checksum, but in
> my understanding of the driver code the thing it's looking for is going
> to be the license ROM, and of course, if it's not there or doesn't have a
> valid license code in it, it's going to fail the checksum test. I can
> even imagine that the support engineer believed the driver would work if
> they just matched it up to the card, and didn't actually test it. Or it
> may be indicative of some new variant of the card coming later that will
> work with the driver once you can buy the card. I can probably find out
> what it really means, but it apparently doesn't mean the driver works with
> every 8952U card that you can lay your hands on, because you clearly have
> a counterexample.
>
> The whole relationship with the former IntraServer (who are now owned by
> LSILogic, along with what used to be Symbios) has been interesting to say
> the least. It would behoove LSILogic to allow Compaq Tru64 UNIX to get
> rid of the "royalty chip" check in the driver, since that would broaden
> their sales of the options into the Tru64 UNIX customer base, but as far
> as I know, they haven't granted that right and as far as I know no one in
> Compaq is off doing the negotiations to persuade them to allow it to be
> removed.
>
> Tom
>
> Dr. Thomas P. Blinn + UNIX Software Group + Compaq Computer Corporation
Received on Mon Sep 24 2001 - 21:01:47 NZST