Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S262631AbVENAA6 (ORCPT ); Fri, 13 May 2005 20:00:58 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S262627AbVENAA6 (ORCPT ); Fri, 13 May 2005 20:00:58 -0400 Received: from e6.ny.us.ibm.com ([32.97.182.146]:52662 "EHLO e6.ny.us.ibm.com") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S262625AbVENAAc (ORCPT ); Fri, 13 May 2005 20:00:32 -0400 In-Reply-To: <428482A1.5090107@vlnb.net> To: Vladislav Bolkhovitin Cc: David Hollis , dmitry_yus@yahoo.com, FUJITA Tomonori , Guennadi Liakhovetski , iscsitarget-devel@lists.sourceforge.net, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, linux-scsi@vger.kernel.org, Sander , Maciej Soltysiak MIME-Version: 1.0 Subject: Re: SCSI/ISCSI, hardware/software X-Mailer: Lotus Notes Release 6.0.2CF1 June 9, 2003 Message-ID: From: Bryan Henderson Date: Fri, 13 May 2005 16:58:59 -0700 X-MIMETrack: Serialize by Router on D01ML604/01/M/IBM(Build V70_04122005|April 12, 2005) at 05/13/2005 20:00:11, Serialize complete at 05/13/2005 20:00:11 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Content-Length: 1755 Lines: 32 >Such iSCSI card from a user point of view as well as for system running >on a computer with it is just another SCSI card, not matter which >transport it uses and how much software it runs onboard, so for they it >doesn't differ from FC or parallel SCSI one, which I think you would not >call a software unit. As usually, you only need appropriate driver for >_SCSI_ subsystem. The point I'd like to make is that _I_ would not call it a software unit or a hardware unit, because I don't think in most contexts (including that of this thread), it makes any difference which technology is used in the implementation. What _does_ matter is 1) this card comes preassembled. I don't have to find and load independently produced software onto it, or worry about interoperability. 2) It's below the Linux kernel, which means I won't need to mess with Linux applications or kernels except to load a low level SCSI driver. It also means it doesn't place any load on my main CPU and probably goes faster than something implemented in or above my Linux kernel would. And there's the separate point that it would be a misnomer to say that this card is an ISCSI initiator (it's only part of one); so even if the card itself can be called hardware, that still doesn't mean you can say you have a hardware ISCSI initiator. Same is true of a parallel SCSI host adapter card. -- Bryan Henderson IBM Almaden Research Center San Jose CA Filesystems - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/