Very Computer

Hi!

I have just installed a somewhat old Future Domain TMC860 SCSI adapter
and use it with a Sankyo CP-525 tape drive. All is well, except that
my cpu load soars to 50% with a Cyrix 6x86-PR200 Cpu.
OK, the adapter is slow, the tape drive is slow but it shouldn't
influence the cpu unless something is wrong. Maybe the driver
is busy waiting somewhere? How can I find out where the problem is?

My main concern is, that having a SCSI adapter I might want to buy
a SCSI CD drive so that it doesn't mess with my hard drives, but
at 50% cpu load I'll stick with an IDE drive.
(Don't tell me to buy a decent SCSI card, I just spent my savings
on the other parts - cpu, mobo, ram)

Thanks,
        Csaba Halasz

PS> Add me to the "Linux and AMD/Cyrix cpus" thread - ran nicely with
a Cyrix 5x86M1Sc-120 and now with the above mentioned M2 PR200 :)))

: Hi!

: I have just installed a somewhat old Future Domain TMC860 SCSI adapter
: and use it with a Sankyo CP-525 tape drive. All is well, except that
: my cpu load soars to 50% with a Cyrix 6x86-PR200 Cpu.
: OK, the adapter is slow, the tape drive is slow but it shouldn't
: influence the cpu unless something is wrong. Maybe the driver
: is busy waiting somewhere? How can I find out where the problem is?

Accordign to the SCSI Howto this is board does fifo polled io. CPU usage
can be as high as 75% on fast devices. They are supposed to be good for
tape drives etc. Looks like you tapedrive is faster than you think.

: My main concern is, that having a SCSI adapter I might want to buy
: a SCSI CD drive so that it doesn't mess with my hard drives, but
: at 50% cpu load I'll stick with an IDE drive.
: (Don't tell me to buy a decent SCSI card, I just spent my savings
: on the other parts - cpu, mobo, ram)

I never regretted the $75,- I paid for my asus SC200 (ncr53810) ;-)

Cheers -- Jaap