Conference wonder::turbolaser

1151.0. "PCI - what should go where?" by HITEKS::DOTY () Thu Mar 27 1997 00:38

    I am presently have a network problem with an 8400 using a DE500. We
    have tried both the -XA and -AA versions.
    
    Symptom:  During interactive editing of a file, or
              during network file transfer
                    system intermittantly "hangs" for 15 to 20 seconds at a
                    time.  MONITOR DECNET on the sending/receiving system
                    shows the network activity at zero.  After the delay,
                    activity begins again with no loss of data.  This is
                    only happening when the DE500 is operating in 100base
                    mode.  
    
    This is "new" installation of a "used" system.
    System was originally a 76xx system upgraded to an 8400A 5/400 system.
    The XMI was stripped out and a PCI unit installed on Hose 0 of KFTHA.
    
    Operating system is OpenVMS 6.2-1H3
    Console revision 4.1-6 - SROM 3.1
    
    PCI config as follows:
    slot 11 - DE500-XA  tulip1
    slot 10 - 
    slot  9 - KZPAA     kzpaa1 to CD-ROM
    slot  8 - KZPSC-XB  dac3 f/w rev 2.36
    slot  7 - 
    slot  6 - cable conn for 3rd scsi channel on both KZPSCs
    slot  5 - KZPAA     kzpaa0 to TZ885
    slot  4 - KZPSC-XB  dac0 f/w rev 2.36
    slot  3 - 
    slot  2 - KEF70 PCI to EISA bridge
    slot  1 -
    slot 12 EISA - tulip0 
    
    In troubleshooting this problem, I decided to reconfigure the PCI so
    that the DE500 would be the only device on the high priority slots
    (slots 8-11).  My initial attempt at this I put the first KZPSC in slot
    3 and shifted all other modules down one or two as needed.  However,
    whenever I had the KZPSC in slot three, the system would hang when
    I tried to do a SHOW DEVICE or RUN RCU at the console level.
    
    IS THERE A SPECIFIC CONFIGURATION DOCUMENT THAT SAYS WHERE MODULES CAN
    AND SHOULD NOT GO?  THE S.O.C. STATES THAT ONLY TWO KZPSCs ARE ALLOWED
    BUT NOWHERE DOES ANY DOCUMENTATION I'VE FOUND STATE WHERE IN THE
    BACKPLANE THEY CAN BE.  I have found statements in TIMA that the DE500
    needs to be in one of the high priority slots, but nothing else special
    about any of the other slots.  
    
    Network Support is renting a 100baseT sniffer so we can continue to
    troubleshoot this problem.  At this point, I do not yet know if the
    reconfiguration of the PCI has helped, as I do not have permission to
    move the network back to the 100baseT section, since the customer is
    running okay on the 10baseT connection.  

    
    
    If you have a KFE70 installed in the DWLP...then the first PCIbus
    segement is NOT useable (PCI slots 0-3). I think that to console should
    tell you that if you try to config something in the first 4 PCI slots.
    So that's why when you moved the KZPSC into slot #3 it didn't work.
    With KFE70 installed you only get PCIbus slots 4-11. Why is it that you
    have 2 KZPAAs...? Only one is supported and only as a connection to the
    CDROM. The supported connection to the tape would be a KZPSA/DWZZ (yes
    I know that it cost more to do it that way...but it's also in the SOC
    about ONLY ONE KZPAA). The problem with the KZPAA is that it runs off
    of scripts that reside in main memory... and with the main memory read
    time on a tlaser there are better connection (KZPSA) for overall system
    performance. Not sure if this has anything to do with your de500
    problem or not. I'm not sure where you got this "high priority" slots
    from. If you have a DWLPA slots 8-11 have a fix in them where embeded
    arbitration is not allowed. This was needed to help some of the early
    PCI adapters (DEFPA,nvram) work with the DWLPA. This has been fixed in
    the DWLPB so all slots are equal in a DWPLB and you can put any PCI
    moulde in any PCI slot (KFE70 NO PCI in solts 0-3).
    
    
    	-Mark-