Asus PCI-DA2100 User manual

R
PCI-DA2100
PCI to SCSI Disk Array Controller
USER'S MANUAL
Hardware Installation

II ASUS PCI-DA2100 User’s Manual
USER'S NOTICE
No part of this product, including the product and software may be reproduced,
transmitted, transcribed, stored in a retrieval system, or translated into any language
in any form by any means without the express written permission of ASUSTeK
COMPUTER INC. (hereinafter referred to asASUS) except documentation kept by
the purchaser for backup purposes.
ASUS provides this manual "as is" without warranty of any kind, either express or
implied, including but not limited to the implied warranties or conditions of mer-
chantability or fitness for a particular purpose. In no event shallASUS be liable for
any loss or profits, loss of business, loss of use or data, interruption of business, or
for indirect, special, incidental, or consequential damages of any kind, even ifASUS
has been advised of the possibility of such damages arising from any defect or error
in this manual or product. ASUS may revise this manual from time to time without
notice.
Products mentioned in this manual are mentioned for identification purposes only.
Product names appearing in this manual may or may not be registered trademarks or
copyrights of their respective companies.
The product name and revision number are both printed on the board itself. Manual
revisions are released for each board design represented by the digit before and after
the period of the manual revision number. Manual updates are represented by the
third digit in the manual revision number. For updated BIOS, drivers, or product
release information you may visit ASUS' home page at: http://www.asus.com.tw/
© Copyright 1996 ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC. All rights reserved.
Product Name: ASUS PCI-DA2100
Manual Revision: 1.22
Release Date: November 1996

ASUS PCI-DA2100 User’s Manual III
ASUS CONTACT INFORMATION
ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC.
Marketing Info:
Address: 150 Li-Te Road, Peitou, Taipei, Taiwan, ROC
Telephone: [phone]
Fax: [phone]
Email: [email protected]
Technical Support:
Fax: [phone]
BBS: 886-2-896-4667
Email: [email protected]
WWW: http://www.asus.com.tw/
Gopher: gopher.asus.com.tw
FTP: ftp.asus.com.tw/pub/ASUS
ASUS COMPUTER INTERNATIONAL
Marketing Info:
Address: 721 Charcot Avenue, San Jose, CA 95131, USA
Telephone: [phone]
Fax: [phone]
Email: [email protected]
Technical Support:
BBS: 1-408-474-0555
Email: [email protected]
ASUS COMPUTER GmbH
Marketing Info:
Address: Harkort Str. 25, 40880 Ratingen, BRD, Germany
Telephone: [phone]
Fax: [phone]
Email: [email protected]
Technical Support:
BBS: 49-2102-448690
Email: [email protected]

IV ASUS PCI-DA2100 User’s Manual
CONTENTS
I. INTRODUCTION.........................................................1
How this manual is organized.......................................................... 1
Item Checklist .................................................................................. 1
II. FEATURES ..................................................................2
Features of the ASUS Motherboard................................................. 2
Parts of the ASUS Motherboard ...................................................... 3
III. INSTALLATION ........................................................4
Map of the ASUS Motherboard ....................................................... 4
Installation Steps.............................................................................. 6
1. Jumpers ........................................................................................ 6
Jumper Settings .................................................................... 7
TAG SRAM Upgrade................................................................. 7
Cyrix CPU Identification...................................................... 11
2. System Memory (DRAM & SRAM).......................................... 12
DRAM Memory Installation Procedures: ............................ 13
3. Central Processing Unit (CPU)................................................... 15
4. Expansion Cards ......................................................................... 16
Expansion Card Installation Procedure: ............................... 16
Assigning IRQs for Expansion Cards................................... 16
Assigning DMA Channels for ISA Cards............................. 17
5. External Connectors.................................................................... 18
Power Connection Procedures ................................................... 25
IV. BIOS SOFTWARE .....................................................26
Support Software ............................................................................. 26
Flash Memory Writer Utility ........................................................... 26
Main Menu ........................................................................... 26
Advanced Features Menu ..................................................... 27
Updating your Motherboard's BIOS .......................................... 28
6. BIOS Setup ................................................................................. 29
Load Defaults ....................................................................... 30
Standard CMOS Setup ............................................................... 30
Details of Standard CMOS Setup:........................................ 31

ASUS PCI-DA2100 User’s Manual V
CONTENTS
BIOS Features Setup .................................................................. 34
Details of BIOS Features Setup:........................................... 34
Chipset Features Setup ............................................................... 37
Power Management Setup.......................................................... 40
Details of Power Management Setup: .................................. 40
PNP and PCI Setup .................................................................... 42
Load BIOS Defaults ................................................................... 44
Load Setup Defaults ................................................................... 44
Supervisor Password and User Password .................................. 45
IDE HDD Auto Detection .......................................................... 46
Save and Exit Setup ................................................................... 47
Exit Without Saving ................................................................... 47
V. DESKTOP MANAGEMENT......................................49
Desktop Management Interface (DMI)............................................ 49
Introducing the ASUS DMI Configuration Utility............... 49
System Requirements ........................................................... 49
Using the ASUS DMI Configuration Utility ........................ 50
Notes:.................................................................................... 50
VI. ADAPTEC EZ-SCSI UTILITY .................................53
Quick Start Instructions ................................................................... 53
Windows95 or WindowsNT....................................................... 53
Windows/Windows for Workgroups 3.1x .................................. 53
DOS............................................................................................ 53
Troubleshooting Tips ....................................................................... 54
SCSI Device Troubleshooting.................................................... 54
Windows95/WindowsNT Troubleshooting ................................ 54
Information for DOS/Windows 3.1x Users ..................................... 57
DOS and Windows3.1x Device Drivers..................................... 57
DOS and Windows3.1x ASPI Managers.................................... 57
DOS Formatting Utilities ........................................................... 58
Low-level Formatter (scsifmt).............................................. 58
Formatter and Partitioner (afdisk) ........................................ 59
Removable Media Manager (rmvtool) ................................. 61
VII. ADAPTEC 7800 DRIVERS (88 Pages)
(for onboard Adaptec 7880 SCSI Chipset)

VI ASUS PCI-DA2100 User’s Manual
FCC & DOC COMPLIANCE
FederalCommunications CommissionStatement
This device complies with FCC Rules Part 15. Operation is subject to the following
two conditions:
• This device may not cause harmful interference, and
• This device must accept any interference received, including interference that
may cause undesired operation.
This equipment has been tested and found to comply with the limits for a Class B
digital device, pursuant to Part 15 of the FCC Rules. These limits are designed to
provide reasonable protection against harmful interference in a residential installa-
tion. This equipment generates, uses and can radiate radio frequency energy and, if
not installed and used in accordance with manufacturer's instructions, may cause
harmful interference to radio communications. However, there is no guarantee that
interference will not occur in a particular installation. If this equipment does cause
harmful interference to radio or television reception, which can be determined by
turning the equipment off and on, the user is encouraged to try to correct the interfer-
ence by one or more of the following measures:
• Re-orient or relocate the receiving antenna.
• Increase the separation between the equipment and receiver.
• Connect the equipment to an outlet on a circuit different from that to which the
receiver is connected.
• Consult the dealer or an experienced radio/TV technician for help.
WARNING: The use of shielded cables for connection of the monitor to the graph-
ics card is required to assure compliance with FCC regulations. Changes or modifi-
cations to this unit not expressly approved by the party responsible for compliance
could void the user's authority to operate this equipment.
CanadianDepartment ofCommunications Statement
This digital apparatus does not exceed the Class B limits for radio noise emissions
from digital apparatus set out in the Radio Interference Regulations of the Canadian
Department of Communications.

ASUS PCI-DA2100 User’s Manual 1
1. Introduction
1. Introduction
The ASUS PCI-DA2100 is a PCI to SCSI RAID controller specifically designed to
provide RAID 0, 1, 3 or 5 capability to any host system equipped with Little Endian
PCI Local Bus interface. All the RAID functions of ASUS PCI-DA2100 are per-
formed by a 486 CPU coupled with high-speed DRAMs and firmware in Flash
Memory. In effect, it endows the host system with the high performance and fault-
tolerant disk storage operation of RAID technology. It is also an ideal solution for
weaving several hard disks into one contiguous volume.
TheASUS PCI-DA2100 has a comprehensive drive failure management that allows
automatic bad block reassignment when a bad sector is encountered during a write.
Hot-swapping is supported through automatic detection of failed drives, followed
by either automatic background rebuilding onto a spare if a spare is assigned or
manual replacement of failed drive and manually initiated background rebuilding.
And all these failure recovery operations are performed in a way transparent to the
host.
The controller has been designed with the ease of integration and maintenance in
mind. The major features are described in the following section. The ASUS PCI-
DA2100 already includes all the major operational requirements for a RAID sub-
system. The final features of a fully-built RAID subsystem will, however, depend
on the actual components used and the creativity of the integrator.
1. Introduction

2ASUS PCI-DA2100 User’s Manual
2. Features
• Five operating modes:
Non-RAID Disk Spanning (including single-drive operation)
RAID-0 Striping
RAID-1 Mirroring and Striping
RAID-3 Block Striping w/ Dedicated Parity
RAID-5 Multiple Block Striping w/ Distributed Parity
• Comprehensive failure management including:
Automatic bad sector reassignment
Hot-swapping
Spare drive operation
Background rebuilding
• PCI Standard length form factor: 6.87"(L) X 4.2"(W).
• Up to 8 logical drives, each with independent RAID mode.
• Up to 8 partitions per logical drive.
• Dynamic mapping of LUNs to logical drives.
• All channels are Ultra Wide SCSI-2 (downward compatible to SCSI-1, SCSI-2).
• Compatibility and automatic matching of any SCSI hard disks complying with
SCSI-1, SCSI-2, Fast Wide, and Ultra Wide SCSI (1 or 2) specifications.
• Full-Wide SCSI-2 implementation including Tagged Command Queuing and
Multi-Threaded I/O.
• Uses486 CPU with allexecutable firmwaredownloaded intohigh-speed DRAM.
• BIOS INT 13 support.
• Flash EEPROM for easy firmware and BIOS upgrading.
• Up to 32 MBytes of intelligent Read-Ahead/Write-Back cache.
• EDO RAM support for enhanced performance.
2. Features
2. Features

ASUS PCI-DA2100 User’s Manual 3
2. Features
2. Features
Layout of the ASUS DA-2100
Fast & Wide SCSI Ch.0 Fast & Wide SCSI Ch.1
SIMM Socket for
Cache upgrade
486 Processor
Non Volatile SRAM

4ASUS PCI-DA2100 User’s Manual
3. Hardware Installation
3. Hardware
Main Board Parts
3.1. Layout of the ASUS DA-2100
FLASH ROM 486DX2-66
Central Processing
Unit
JP1
JP6
Channel 0 Channel 1
Memory Expansion (72-Pin DRAM) Non Volatile
SRAM
JP2
JP1, JP2: Factory use. Open for normal operation.
JP6: LED Connector for Hard Disk Drive Activity light.

ASUS PCI-DA2100 User’s Manual 5
3.2. Installing DRAM SIMM
IMPORTANT: The ASUS PCI-DA2100 requires a minimum of 2 MBytes of
DRAMinone SIMM(withor without parityfunction)installed inSIMM socket
to operate. The controller is normally delivered without any DRAM installed.
Following are guidelines with regards to DRAM:
•Use 72-pin 60 ns DRAM or 60 ns EDO RAM SIMM module. EDO RAM is
recommended to improve the performance.
• DRAM with or without parity is auto-detected by ASUS PCI-DA2100, but
DRAM with parity is recommended for security.
• Minimum DRAM required is 2 MBytes installed in SIMM socket.
• Minimum of 4 MBytes is suggested for RAID-3 and RAID-5 operation.
• ASUS PCI-DA2100 supports 2MB, 4MB, 8MB, 16MB, 32MB DRAM SIMM
module. Maximum DRAM size is 32 MBytes.
To install DRAM SIMM:
1 Power off the system and disconnect the power connector.
2 Insert the DRAM SIMM paralleled with the key to the left (1). Then, push
towards the back until the hooks on both sides of the socket snap into place (2)
as shown below.
3. Hardware Installation
3. Hardware
Installing DRAM

6ASUS PCI-DA2100 User’s Manual
3. Hardware Installation
3. Hardware
Basic Setup
3.3. Basic Operational Set-Up
Following is a description of a sample operational set-up:
Terminator
Terminator
Up to 7
Drives
Terminator
Up to 7
Drives
SCSI Cable
SCSI Cable
• The SCSI cable must be shorter than 2 meters
• Drives connected to channel 0 and/or 1.
• SCSI nodes on the same channel have unique ID number. The SCSI ID 7 is
reserved for theASUS PCI-DA2100 adapter and thus no drives should use ID7.
• Both ends of all SCSI cables are properly terminated. Disable the termination
of channel-0 and enable the termination of channel-1
• Power supply attached.
• All operation parameters properly set.
• Terminate the SCSI cable by either installing a terminator on the
farthest hard disk from the controller or by installing an external
terminator on the end connector. The latter, is preferred as removal of the
hard disk will not affect cable termination. All other terminators must be
removed making sure that only one terminator is installed.
• The default state of terminators embedded onASUS PCI-DA2100 controller are
enabled, which can be changed by running RAIDMAN.EXE.
External
Channel 0
Internal
Channel 0
Internal
Channel 1

ASUS PCI-DA2100 User’s Manual 7
4. Disk Failure Management
One of the most important aspects of a RAID system is in providing fault-tolerant
non-stop disk storage operation. In the event of a disk failure, disk access will
continue normally with the failure transparent to the host system. The ASUS PCI-
DA2100 will announce a disk failure with a repeated two-beep sequence over the
speaker on the ASUS PCI-DA2100.
IMPORTANT: Although the RAID subsystem will continue to
provide uninterrupted disk access after a drive failure, do not leave a failed
drive unattended! Without a spare drive, a RAID system can not survive the
failure of a second drive on the same logical drive. A defective drive has to be
replaced and the data rebuild as soon as possible. For the same reason, if you
are doing hot-swapping, remove only the defective drive. Removing the wrong
drive will result in unrecoverable data loss.
In all cases, data will have to be rebuilt onto the replacement drive. Data rebuilding
is done in the background, meaning the host system can access the storage sub-
system as usual while the rebuilding is taking place.
4.1. Operation With Spare Drive
Following are guidelines with regards to disk failure recovery when a spare drive is
available:
• If a spare drive exists in the same logical drive, the controller will
automatically mount the spare drive and start data rebuilding in the background.
• Depending on the design of the subsystem external to the ASUS PCI-DA2100,
it may be possible to remove defective drive and replace it with a new drive
without shutting down the system (hot-swapping). Alternatively, the system
can be shut down at a convenient time and the failed drive replaced.
• The replacement drive must then be assigned as the new spare drive.
4. Disk Failure Management
4. Disk Failure
Management

8ASUS PCI-DA2100 User’s Manual
4. Disk Failure
Without Spare Drive
4. Disk Failure Management
4.2. Operation Without Spare Drive
• Depending on the design of the subsystem, the defective drive can be replaced
without shutting down the system (hot-swapping). Alternatively, the system
can be shut down at a convenient time and the failed drive replaced.
• If the replacement drive is installed on the same channel and ID number, you
can then proceed to data rebuilding.
• If the replacement drive is installed on a different channel or ID number, it has
to be “Scan” in as a new drive and then assigned as a spare drive of the logical
drive. Data rebuilding will have to be manually initiated as instructed in the
following section.
4.3. Data Rebuilding Via Text RAID Manager
Data rebuilding can be done through running RAIDMAN.EXE under DOS.

ASUS PCI-DA2100 User’s Manual 9
5. BIOS Configuration Utility
At system bootup, the ASUS PCI-DA2100 BIOS displays the following message:
ASUS PCI-DA2000 Series (PCI-TO-SCSI RAID) BIOS v1.11
PCI Bus # = 00 Device # = 0B Port = E800 IRQ = 12 EDORAM=4 MB FW=1.11
!! Press <Ctrl><I> for Configuration Utility, <Q> to Skip !!
NOTES :
PCI Bus #, Device #:
Show the PCI bus and PCI device number been assigned to ASUS PCI-DA2100.
The numbers are in hexadecimal.
Port:
Show the I/O port base address been assigned to ASUS PCI-DA2100.
IRQ:
Show the Interrupt level been assigned toASUS PCI-DA2100. The level is in deci-
mal.
EDO RAM DRAM:
Displays the cache RAM type and size been installed on ASUS PCI-DA2100.
F/W:
Show the firmware version of ASUS PCI-DA2100.
ASUS PCI-DA2100 BIOS waits 3 seconds for a keystroke. You can press [Ctrl-I]
to enter the configuration utility, or press Qto skip waiting for a keystroke.
If [Ctrl-I] is pressed to enter configuration utility, the main menu will appear. There
are two functions in the main menu: Configuration and Color/Monochrome.
5.1. Configuration
There are four functions in the Configuration Option: Configure BIOS, Configure
Card, Configure SCSI and Reset to Defaults.
5. BIOS Configuration Utility
5. BIOS Utility
Configuration

10 ASUS PCI-DA2100 User’s Manual
5. BIOS Utility
Configure BIOS
5. BIOS Configuration Utility
5.1.1. Configure BIOS
1. Enable BIOS INT 13H Function.
2. BIOS Translation Mode : Auto or Fixed.
Use fixed mode together with “Support for Disks > 1GB” is disabled for UNIX/
DOS or UNIX/OS2 dual boot system, use Auto mode for other system.
Auto mode :
• BIOS detects the existing CHS mapping from the disk.
• If any valid CHS mapping is found, BIOS uses it.
• If no valid CHS mapping is found, BIOS uses Fixed mode.
Fixed mode :
• If option “Support for Disks > 1 GB” is disabled,
BIOS uses SectorsPerTrack = 32, TotalHeads = 64.
• If option “Support for Disks > 1 GB” is enabled,
For disk size <= 1GB,BIOS uses SectorsPerTrack = 32, TotalHeads = 64.
For disk size > 1GB, BIOS uses SectorsPerTrack = 63, TotalHeads = 255.
3. Support for Disk > 1 GB.
4. Support Removable Disks as Fixed Disks: to be supported in the future.
5. Support for 3 Disks or More (MS-DOS v5.0 or Above) :
For MS-DOS version below 5.0, only supports up to 2 disks, don’t set this option
to “Yes” on those version DOS system.
6. Support for NOT-ZERO SCSI LUN : Set this option to “Yes”, if you want the
BIOS to support all SCSI Target LUNs, 0 to 7.
7. Configure BIOS Devices : Select this option, the screen appears a
status list of SCSI device scanned by BIOS at BIOS initialization. If SCSI de-
vice is not scanned by BIOS, then it is never installed by BIOS.
5.1.2. Configure Card
Select this option, the following message appears :
ISA Mailbox Emulation Mode :
IO Port Address 330
Press [Enter] to select the desired IO port address.
NOTE: If you want to use the diskette-provided device driver, you MUST set
the I/O port address to Disabled, otherwise the card will ignore this driver.

ASUS PCI-DA2100 User’s Manual 11
5.1.3. Configure SCSI
If this option is selected, a list of physical SCSI channels will appear.
Select a SCSI channel that you want to configure, then a new dialog box of SCSI
Channel Configuration will appear. The major options are listed as follows.
1. SCSI ID:
Use this option to change SCSI ID of SCSI Channel.
2. Enable SCSI Termination :
Use this option to enable/disable SCSI termination.
3. Configure SCSI Devices:
Use this option to change the low-level SCSI features of SCSI devices.
The supported options are listed as follows.
* Synchronous Transfer Period.
* Maximum Tagged Command Queue.
* SCSI Disconnect.
* SCSI Parity.
5.1.4. Reset to Defaults
If this option is selected, all the configurations are reset to the manufacture’s de-
faults.
5.2. Color/Monochrome
Switches display mode between color and monochrome.
5. BIOS Configuration Utility
5. BIOS Utility
Configure SCSI

12 ASUS PCI-DA2100 User’s Manual
(This page was intentionally left blank)

ASUS PCI-DA2100 User’s Manual 13
6. Troubleshooting
6. Troubleshooting
Problem - Check
6. Troubleshooting
NOTE: Following is a check list for problems commonly encountered during
installation. Forfailuresthatoccur duringoperation, refertothe failurerecov-
ery procedure.
PROBLEM
7-segment is off or not flashing
SCSI channel failure detected
upon start-up with SCSI cables
connected.
Buzzer with continuous beeps
Initialization failure
Cannot detect SCSI drive
BIOS show no drive connection
Logical drive failure detected
during boot-up
System is not stable after
running a period of time
CHECK
1 PCI slot contact quality.
2 Minimum of 2MB DRAM SIMM
installed.
1 ID numbers (must be unique for each
device on the same SCSI channel).
2 Terminators are properly installed.
1 ID numbers (must be unique for each
device on the same SCSI channel).
2 Terminators are properly installed.
1 Drive power connections.
2 Drive SCSI cable connections.
3 ID numbers (must be unique for each
device on the same SCSI channel).
1 SCSI port to LUN assignment.
2 Logical drive mapping to LUN.
1 Proper installation or connection of one or
more of the drives (use the “View SCSI
drives” function to help locate the problem).
1 SCSI cable is no more than 2 meters.
2 Terminators are properly installed.
3 Power supply voltage is within the specifi-
cation.

14 ASUS PCI-DA2100 User’s Manual
7. Specifications
7. Specifications
7. Specifications
RAID level 0, 1, 3, 5 (or non-RAID disk spanning)
Operation Firmware on Flash Memory and DRAM
running on 486 CPU
Failure management Bad sector reassignment, hot-swapping,
hot spare drive operation, background
rebuilding
Failure indicator Via Text RAID Manager , GUI RAID
Manager and on-board buzzer
Cache size Up to 32 MBytes
Host interface PCI Rev. 2.0
Hard disk interface Ultra Wide SCSI 2
Hard disk channels Up to 2
Channel Terminator Active, software programmable
SCSI protocol SCSI-1/2, Fast Wide SCSI-1/2 (auto-match)
SCSI transfer rate 40 MBytes/sec synchronous
Max. SCSI drives 14
No. of logical drives 8 with different RAID levels
Partitions 8 per logical drive, total of 64
No. of LUNs 8 per channel, total of 64 (dynamic mapping
to logical drives or partitions)
Control Via Text RAID Manager or GUI RAID
Manager
SCSI connectors 68-pin header for internal channels,
68- pin High-Density female connector for
external channel
SCSI cabling Single-ended
Voltage +5 Volts
Current 2 Amp
Operating Temperature 0˚ to 45˚ C
Relative Humidity 10-96%, non-condensing
OperatingAltitude Sea level to 10,000 ft.
Dimensions 6.87"(L) x 4.2(W)