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SYM(4) FreeBSD Kernel Interfaces Manual SYM(4)
NAME
sym - NCR/Symbios/LSI Logic 53C8XX PCI SCSI host adapter driver
SYNOPSIS
To compile this driver into the kernel, place the following lines in your
kernel configuration file:
device pci
device scbus
device sym
To disable PCI parity checking (needed for broken bridges):
options SYM_SETUP_PCI_PARITY=<boolean>
To control driver probing against HVD buses:
options SYM_SETUP_SCSI_DIFF=<bit combination>
Alternatively, to load the driver as a module at boot time, place the
following line in loader.conf(5):
sym_load="YES"
DESCRIPTION
This driver provides support for the Symbios/LSI Logic 53C8XX PCI SCSI
controllers.
Driver features include support for wide SCSI busses and fast10, fast20,
fast40 and fast80-dt synchronous data transfers depending on controller
capabilities. It also provides generic SCSI features such as tagged
command queueing and auto-request sense. This driver is configured by
default for a maximum of 446 outstanding commands per bus, 8 LUNs per
target and 64 tagged tasks per LUN. These numbers are not so much
limited by design as they are considered reasonable values for current
SCSI technology. These values can be increased by changing appropriate
constants in driver header files (not recommended).
This driver supports the entire Symbios 53C8XX family of PCI SCSI
controllers. It also offers the advantage of architectural improvements
available only with newer chips.
sym notably handles phase mismatch from SCRIPTS for the 53C896, 53C895A,
and 53C1010 cores. As a result, it guarantees that no more than 1
interrupt per IO completion is delivered to the CPU, and that the SCRIPTS
processor is never stalled waiting for CPU attention in normal
situations.
sym also uses LOAD/STORE SCRIPTS instructions for chips that support it.
Only the early 810, 815 and 825 NCR chips do not support LOAD/STORE. Use
of LOAD/STORE instead of MEMORY MOVE allows SCRIPTS to access IO
registers internal to the chip (no external PCI cycles). As a result,
the driver guarantees that no PCI self-mastering will occur for chips
that support LOAD/STORE.
LOAD/STORE instructions are also faster than MEMORY MOVE because they do
not involve the chip DMA FIFO and are coded on 2 DWORDs instead of 3.
For the early NCR 810, 815 and 825 chips, the driver uses a separate
that can support HVD but not LVD, the driver has to probe implementation
dependent registers (GPIO) in order to detect HVD bus mode. Only HVD
implementations that conform with Symbios Logic recommendations can be
detected by the driver. When the SYM_SETUP_SCSI_DIFF kernel option is
assigned a value of 1, the driver will also probe against HVD for 825a,
875, 876 and 885 chips, assuming Symbios Logic compatible implementation
of HVD.
When the SYM_SETUP_PCI_PARITY is assigned a value of 0, the driver will
not enable PCI parity checking for 53C8XX devices. PCI parity checking
should not be an option for PCI SCSI controllers, but some systems have
been reported to fail using 53C8XX chips, due to spurious or permanent
PCI parity errors detected. This option is supplied for convenience but
it is neither recommended nor supported.
This driver offers other options that are not currently exported to the
user. They are defined and documented in the sym_conf.h driver file.
Changing these options is not recommended unless absolutely necessary.
Some of these options are planned to be exported through sysctl(3) or an
equivalent mechanism in a future driver releases and therefore, no
compatibility is guaranteed.
At initialization, the driver tries to detect and read user settings from
controller NVRAM. The Symbios/Logic NVRAM layout and the Tekram NVRAM
layout are currently supported. If the reading of the NVRAM succeeds,
the following settings are taken into account and reported to CAM:
Host settings Symbios Tekram
SCSI parity checking Y N
Host SCSI ident Y Y
Verbose messages Y N
Scan targets hi-lo Y N
Avoid SCSI bus reset Y N
Device settings Symbios Tekram
Synchronous period Y Y
SCSI bus width Y Y
Queue tag enable Y Y
Number of tags NA Y
Disconnect enable Y Y
Scan at boot time Y N
Scan LUN Y N
Devices that are configured as disabled for 'scan' in the NVRAM are not
reported to CAM at system start-up. They can be discovered later using
the `camcontrol rescan' command.
The table below summarizes the main features and capabilities of the
NCR/Symbios/LSI Logic 53C8XX family of PCI SCSI controllers.
Chip Sync Width SRAM PCI64 Supported
sym53c810 10MHz 8Bit N N Y
sym53c810a 10MHz 8Bit N N Y
sym53c815 10MHz 8Bit N N Y
sym53c825 10MHz 16Bit N N Y
sym53c825a 10MHz 16Bit 4KB N Y
sym53c860 20MHz 8Bit N N Y
sym53c875 20MHz 16Bit 4KB N Y
sym53c876 20MHz 16Bit 4KB N Y
HARDWARE
The sym driver provides support for the following Symbios/LSI Logic PCI
SCSI controllers:
o 53C810
o 53C810A
o 53C815
o 53C825
o 53C825A
o 53C860
o 53C875
o 53C876
o 53C895
o 53C895A
o 53C896
o 53C897
o 53C1000
o 53C1000R
o 53C1010-33
o 53C1010-66
o 53C1510D
The SCSI controllers supported by sym can be either embedded on a
motherboard, or on one of the following add-on boards:
o ASUS SC-200, SC-896
o Data Technology DTC3130 (all variants)
o DawiControl DC2976UW
o Diamond FirePort (all)
o NCR cards (all)
o Symbios cards (all)
o Tekram DC390W, 390U, 390F, 390U2B, 390U2W, 390U3D, and 390U3W
o Tyan S1365
MISC
The DEC KZPCA-AA is a rebadged SYM8952U.
SEE ALSO
cd(4), da(4), sa(4), scsi(4), camcontrol(8)
HISTORY
The sym driver appeared in FreeBSD 4.0.
AUTHORS
The sym driver was written by Gerard Roudier and is derived from the
Linux sym53c8xx driver from the same author. The sym53c8xx driver is
derived from the ncr53c8xx driver, which was ported from the FreeBSD
ncr(4) driver to Linux-1.2.13. The original ncr(4) driver was written
for 386BSD and FreeBSD by Wolfgang Stanglmeier and Stefan Esser.
BUGS
No known bugs.
FreeBSD 14.2-RELEASE December 26, 2020 FreeBSD 14.2-RELEASE