Sillicon Image 3112 and 3512

hawaiian2002hawaiian2002
edited March 2004 in Science & Tech
Aloha guys,

I have a Gigabyte Ga-7N400 pro motherboard with a SI 3112A SATA onboard controller. I have 2 Seagate 160G SATA hard drives in Raid0 supposedly with native command queuing. I bought these hard drives because of a Tom's Hardware review on these hard drives. This is what is stated on the Sillicon Image website: "Because the SiI 3512's software structure is similar to that of the SiI 3112A, users of the latter can easily migrate to the new SiI 3512"

Also it states this: "The SiI 3512 is the first host controller on the market to support first-party DMA commands, a necessary capability for Native Command Queuing as defined in the Serial ATA II specification."

So what they are saying is that the 3512 supports command queuing. Also, I think it is saying the the 3112a can be "flashed" or software driver upgraded to a 3512.

Does anyone know if I can make my 3112a controller into a 3512 controller and have true "command queuing"? According to the test results on Tom's hardware, the two Seagate SATA Raid0 hard drives at competitive with the Raptor 740's in Raid0.

Comments

  • EQuitoEQuito SoCal, USA
    edited March 2004
    Changes in bios revision 4x47 include:

    1) Change init raid parameter to run code to fix AMI EBDA issue and remove the "imcompleted raid set" message
    2) Zero Bar5 address 0x014c and 0x1cc bit0 and bit1 for 3512
    3) Change BIOS display for Sync and rebuild status.
    4)Change the copyright year from 2003 to 2004 and remove smart self test.
    5)Change PIO data read handling and release the EPAD version of 3512 as public download and no-EPAD version as internal use.
    TBH, I don't see the need to flash 3112 with 3512 as the recent changes to bios v4.2.47 apply to both controllers eventhough 3512 supports 4 channels instead of 2.
  • SpinnerSpinner Birmingham, UK
    edited March 2004
    I agree with EQ' I don't think there is any need. However, you need to double check what controller you've got on that board. Version 2 of your motherboard has got the 3512 controller, and it is the older versions which only have the 3112 controller. When did you buy it? The drivers for both these controllers are the same, but there are two different BIOS files for each. v4.3.47 is the latest for the 3512 controller and v4.2.47 is the latest for the 3112 controller.

    Because the two controllers are very similar, it shouldn't do any harm to flash either of them (which ever one you've got) with each others controller BIOS's, but I wouldn't recommend it while you've got a RAID 0 array operating on it, in case you lose it.
  • EQuitoEQuito SoCal, USA
    edited March 2004
    Just for the heck of it, I flashed the 3512 bios onto my 3112 bios and it didn't work so there, don't try it.

    :respect: to my Bios savior... :D
  • SpinnerSpinner Birmingham, UK
    edited March 2004
    EQuito wrote:
    Just for the heck of it, I flashed the 3512 bios onto my 3112 bios and it didn't work so there, don't try it.

    :respect: to my Bios savior... :D
    ...and may I introduce EQuito, Short-Media's resident guinea pig. :tongue:
  • hawaiian2002hawaiian2002
    edited March 2004
    Sorry that the bios didn't work for you EQuito. Thanks for trying. I have the 3112a controller. I can see the chip itself. Lets step back a bit here. Is the 3512 much better than the 3112? Does the 3512 controller have native command queuing? It would seem that that controller would be the perfect mate for my hard drives.
  • SpinnerSpinner Birmingham, UK
    edited March 2004
    hawaiian2002 wrote:
    Sorry that the bios didn't work for you EQuito. Thanks for trying. I have the 3112a controller. I can see the chip itself. Lets step back a bit here. Is the 3512 much better than the 3112? Does the 3512 controller have native command queuing? It would seem that that controller would be the perfect mate for my hard drives.
    I think what they were trying to say was (refering to your original post) users with existing RAID arrays on a 3112A controller can quite safely migrate those drives onto a card that used the 3512 controller without having to rebuild the array. Or, for example if you upgraded your motherboard to V2 which is the exact same board as you've got, but with the 3512 controller instead of the 3112A.

    As far as the specs of both controllers go, I honestly don't know the differences and I honestly don't know how much the 3512 controller has up on the 3112A. What I can say is, I'm sure there will be hardly any difference with regard to performance, stability and reliablity between the two.
  • EQuitoEQuito SoCal, USA
    edited March 2004
    Yeah! what he said... :cheers:

    fyi: 3112/3112A = 2 channels, 3512 = 4 channels
  • hawaiian2002hawaiian2002
    edited March 2004
    I thank you for all the responses. There is not a whole lot of forums that know anything about these controllers. I have also checked out some of Spinners tweaks and they're great.
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