How to enable DMA for SATA devices? - Sam460ex

Hello,

In the Sam460ex manual it says:

"How to enable DMA for SATA devices?

Check the documentation which comes with the operating system on how to enable DMA for SATA devices. By default, all devices are set to PIO mode (slow)."

I'm using the on-board SATA, not through a HD-controller in the PCI slot.

I suspect my setup is set to PIO. Anyone knows how to enable DMA? :)

Thanks in advance.

Hi,

you can't enable DMA on OS4 for the onboard SATA2 Port of the Sam460ex. ACube Systems never published a Device Driver with DMA Support for it. Because most of the people tend to use a SiI3114 SATA Controller and prefer to plug someting else into the PCI-Express X1 Slot which is mutually exclusive to that SATA2 Port.

http://www.acube-systems.biz/index.php?page=hardware&pid=5

@BobSacamano

You configure the driver by setting certain UBoot variables.

Each of the device drivers have their own set of variables which can be set through the UBoot command line (or using the NVSetVar command in OS4 - this one is only available on the Sams, IIRC, so at least your machine should have it).

In the Documentation/IDE drawer you should find the documentation for the driver you use. It tells you how to set the values of the variables to obtain what you need.

The file you want to consult for the builtin SATA interface is called sam460sata_dev.doc - look for the description of the sam460sata_xfer variable.

BUT: As this file will also tell you: "- Only PIO modes are currently supported."

Best regards,

Niels

Many thanks for the helpful information guys. :) Have now ordered a SATA controller (SiI3114). Do you think the difference will be quite noticeable from using the on-board SATA?

@BobSacamano

Of course it depends on your use case, i.e. how much your daily usage wants to read and write on the disk, but yeah - it should give a very noticable difference in most cases.

Both by being faster itself and by using less CPU so other simultaneous tasks can benefit from it.

Best regards,

Niels

Received the card today and installed it. It boots up to the AmigaOS 4.1 boot-screen, loads for a while and then the Hyperion insert disk screen appears. :(

It works fine if:

- Main HD is connected to the internal SATA port on the SAM
- Secondary HD connected to the SATA PCI card

But can't boot from PCI for some reason. Tried adjusting boot settings in UBOOT (boot from 3114 HD I think it was).

Any ideas? :)

@BobSacamano

You might have to set the SATA configuration if you only have 1 device atttached. i have alwasy found the Sii3114 cards kind of funny on SAMs if not only 1 device is attached.
prefer ths sii3512 cards .

if the hardrive is on the first Sii3114 port :

nvsetvar sii3114ide_conf=1000

See Sys:Documentation/IDE/sii3114ide_dev.doc

@Spectre660

Thanks for the suggestion. I will try it once I get a DVD-drive installed as well. :)

So, if I have HD in port 1, HD in port 2, DVD in port 3 (just an example), it will be:

nvsetvar sii3114ide?conf=1120

Is that correct?

Now, this is probably a stupid question, but if I use the setup like it is now.. 1 HD connected to internal SATA, 1 HD connected to PCI card, will the one connected to PCI card use DMA and the other one PIO? I'm not very familiar with all this, but one does not learn without asking. :D

@BobSacamano

nvsetvar sii3114ide_conf=1120 would be correct .

Yes the drive attached to the PCI card would use DMA and the one attached to the internal controller would use PIO

Edit: corrected the ? to _ .

Thanks nbBache

Make sure to use an underscore (_), not a question mark (?) as shown in the two previous posts.

It might also be an idea to set the sii3114ide_xfer variable, although it should normally default to the highest UDMA mode available for each unit.

Best regards,

Niels

Thanks again both of you. :) Truly appreciate all the help you are providing in this forum!