This chapter explains the New Hardware Delivery (NHD) process and describes the contents of the NHD-5 kit.
All system hardware requires supporting modules in the operating system kernel. Without this kernel support, the operating system cannot interact with the hardware and may fail to function altogether.
A New Hardware Delivery (NHD) kit includes kernel modules that let your system support new or upgraded hardware. The kit is distributed on CD-ROM and also can be downloaded from the World Wide Web.
NHD lets you install new hardware support without reinstalling the base
operating system.
However, you must reboot your system to build a kernel that
includes the modules that support your new hardware.
The bootlink process
builds a generic kernel in memory, using generic kernel modules along with
those included in your NHD kit.
This bootlinked kernel is not written to disk,
but allows the
boot
utility to include the hardware support
modules into your running kernel.
Note
If you need to boot
genvmunix
after you have installed hardware support, your system will not recognize the hardware you installed with NHD. To access all of the kernel modules supplied bygenvmunix
and NHD, use the following command to boot/GENERIC
:>>> boot -fi GENERIC
The NHD-5 release includes support for the following hardware:
AlphaServer/AlphaStation DS25 system (Section 1.1)
Tigon3 gigabit network interface adapter on DS25 motherboard (Section 1.2)
Recordable CD drives (Section 1.3)
Smart Array 5300A series RAID controllers (Section 1.4)
1.1 AlphaServer/AlphaStation DS25 System
The AlphaServer/AlphaStation DS25 system is provided in either a tower configuration with expanded storage capacity or as a rack-mounted system. It supports up to two Alpha 21264C processors at speeds up to 1,000 MHz with 8 MB level 2 dual data rate (DDR) cache per processor, and four 125 MHz PCI buses. This system includes dual Ethernet adapters (10/100 and 10/100/1000), dual UltraSCSI adapters, a 32X recordable CD drive, and a remote management console (RMC) for environmental monitoring. The DS25 system can support up to 16 GB of 125 to 133 MHz SDRAM memory in sixteen 200-pin dual inline memory modules (DIMMs) and provides six 64-bit PCI slots (both 33 MHz and 66 MHz) for I/O expansion.
The differences between the AlphaServer and AlphaStation configurations consist of the factory installed software (FIS) and the number of included user licenses. See your DS25 system documentation for more information.
The following are the orderable part numbers for Tru64 UNIX DS25
systems with different memory options:
Table 1-1: Supported DS25 System Part Numbers
Memory Option | AlphaServer DS25 | AlphaStation DS25 |
512 MB | DA-57AAA-CA | DA-57AAA-CW |
1 GB | DA-57AAA-DA | DA-57AAA-DW |
2 GB | DA-57AAA-EA | DA-57AAA-EW |
4 GB | DA-57AAA-FA | DA-57AAA-FW |
1.2 Tigon3 Gigabit Network Interface Adapter
The Tigon3 gigabit network interface adapter is a 10/100/1000 base-T full/half duplex device. NHD-5 supports the LAN-on-motherboard (LOM) implementation of the Tigon3 as one of the two integral Ethernet adapters on the DS25 system.
Caution
The Tigon3 gigabit network interface adapter support in NHD-5 is qualified for network interface, and is not yet qualified for cluster interconnect.
The
bcm
(7)sysattrs_bcm
(5)Table 1-2: Locations of Tigon3 reference page Files
File | Description |
./DOC/man7/bcm.* |
bcm (7) |
./DOC/man5/sysattrs_bcm.* |
sysattrs_bcm (5) |
Recordable CD (CD-R) drives provide writable media for systems without diskette drives. They also can be used to move up to 650 MB of data from one system to another in a format supported by multiple operating systems. For NHD-5, recordable CD drives are supported on DS25 systems.
NHD-5 support for CD-R drives is provided by an updated
mkisofs
utility and a new
cdrecord
command:
The
mkisofs
utility creates a hybrid ISO9660/JOLIET/HFS
file system with optional Rock Ridge attributes.
The
mkisofs
utility and the
mkisofs
(8)mkisofs
utility files in the NHD-5
kit distribution.
Table 1-3: Locations of mkisofs Utility Files
File | Description |
./520/usr/sbin/mkisofs |
mkisofs
utility |
./DOC/man8/mksiofs.* |
mkisofs (8) |
The
cdrecord
command records audio or data
compact discs (CDs) from a master.
The
cdrecord
command and the
cdrecord
(1)cdrecord
utility files in the NHD-5
kit distribution.
Table 1-4: Locations of cdrecord Utility Files
File | Description |
./520/usr/sbin/cdrecord |
cdrecord
command |
./DOC/man1/cdrecord.* |
cdrecord (1) |
The Recording a Data CD-ROM Best Practice is available on the World Wide Web at the following URL:
http://www.tru64unix.compaq.com/docs/best_practices/BP_CDRECORD/TITLE.HTM
1.4 Smart Array 5300A RAID Controllers
The Smart Array (SA) 5300A series RAID controllers are two-channel (128 MB memory) and four-channel (256 MB memory) Ultra3 SCSI hard drive array controllers with battery-backed cache. The SA5300A series controllers support Ultra3 LVD SCSI technology for improved data transfer rates (160 MB/second per channel) and are backward compatible with devices using older SCSI technologies.
The following are the orderable part numbers for SA5300A series RAID controllers:
3X-KZPDC-BE (two-channel SA5302A controller with 128 MB cache)
3X-KZPDC-DF (four-channel SA5304A BPR controller with 256 MB cache)