Technical data

mlx(7D) Devices SunOS 5.5
NAME mlx − low-level module for Mylex DAC960 EISA and IBM DMC960 Micro Channel host
bus adapter series
SYNOPSIS /kernel/drv/mlx
AVAILABILITY x86
DESCRIPTION The mlx module provides low-level interface routines between the common disk/tape
I/O subsystem and the Mylex DAC960 and IBM DMC960 controllers. The DMC960 is
also known as IBM SCSI-2 RAID and IBM SCSI-2 Fast/Wide Streaming RAID
Adapter/A. The mlx module can be configured for disk, CD-ROM, and streaming tape
support for one or more host adapter boards.
Auto-configuration code determines whether the adapter is present at the configured
address and what types of devices are attached to it. The Mylex DAC960 and IBM
DMC960 is primarily used as a disk array (system drive) controller. In order to configure
the attached disk arrays, the controller must first be configured prior to Solaris boot using
the configuration utilitiesprovided by the hardware manufacturer. With these utilities,
the user can set different levels of redundant arrays of independent disks (RAID), strip-
ing parameters, caching mechanisms, etc. For more information, refer to the user’s
manual supplied with your hardware.
EISA/Micro Channel
Configuration Tips
The Mylex DAC960 and IBM DMC960 BIOS can handle multiple cards. Therefore, if
more than one Mylex DAC960 and IBM DMC960 adapter is installed in a system only the
BIOS of the one in the lowest slot should be enabled and the BIOS of the rest should be
disabled.
Enable tag queueingonly for the SCSI disk drives which are officially tested and
approved by Mylex Corp for the DAC960 and IBM for the DMC960. Otherwise, it is
strongly recommended to disable tag queueingto avoid serious problems.
EISA Board
Configuration and
Auto Configuration
The driver attempts to initialize itself in accordance with the information found in the
configuration file /kernel/drv/mlx.conf. If the Mylex DAC960 SCSI host adapter has N
channels, the mlx.conf file should have N+1 entries for that slot. The section of the file for
that slot will contain N entries, one per physical channel, numbered from 0 to N-1 , and
one entry dedicated to all the System Drives on that adapter, virtual channel number 255
(0xFF). The entry for the virtual channel (0xFF) has to be the first one for each slot.
In general, if the Mylex DAC960 SCSI host adapter is installed in slot S, the syntax of the
entry for its virtual channel is:
name="mlx" parent="eisa"
interrupts=5,9,5,10,5,11,5,12,5,13,5,14,5,15 reg=0xS0FF,0,0
ioaddr=0xS0FF flow_control="dmult" queue="qsort" disk="dadk";
And the entry for its XX-th physical channel (XX in hex) is:
7D-208 modified 24 May 1995