[LinuxBIOS] Slow SATA on Tyan s2891 with LinuxBIOS

[Greg Johnson]

We have noticed some performance issues with the nvidia sata controller
under LinuxBIOS.  With FB it is faster.  Using "hdparm -Tt /dev/sda" we
measure 30 MB/s with LB and 45 MB/s with FB on a particular node.

lspci reports

0000:01:08.0 IDE interface: nVidia Corporation: Unknown device 0055 (rev a3) (prog-if 85 [Master SecO PriO])

with LB and

0000:00:08.0 IDE interface: nVidia Corporation: Unknown device 0055 (rev f3) (prog-if 85 [Master SecO PriO])

with FB.  Also "hdparm -I /dev/sda" reports

R/W multiple sector transfer: Max = 16  Current = 16

with FB and

R/W multiple sector transfer: Max = 16  Current = 0

with LB.  Any ideas about how to improve the SATA performance under LB?

Thanks,

Greg

[Ward Vandewege]

On Thu, Feb 02, 2006 at 11:08:17AM -0700, Greg Johnson wrote:
> with LB.  Any ideas about how to improve the SATA performance under LB?

I'm afraid I don't have answers for you, but I do have a couple of questions
:) Do you boot off SATA? If so, I assume you use Etherboot? Which version?
Which version of LB are you running?

I've yet to get LB stable on our Tyan s2891, running with the latest versions
of LB/Etherboot...

Thanks,
Ward.