Chapter Four; Download Firmware; Using The Download Firmware Utility - Adaptec AHA-1740A Installation Manual

Chapter Four
Download Firmware
Using the Download Firmware Utility
The AHA-1740/1744
(not
the AHA-1740A or AHA-1742A) have
the unique flexibility of allowing firmware to be altered or
upgraded while the board is installed in a system. This is done
by using a utility on the ASW-Cl 74 and new files supplied with
ASW-Ml 74. Note that it is not necessary
to
perform a down-
load when installing a system for the first time or
to
select
between Standard and Enhanced Modes.
The microcode with which the AHA-17 40/17 44 is equipped con-
sists of two components:
• Standard Mode
• Enhanced Mode
Selection between these modes affects the software manager re-
quired
to
support the board. It has no effect on the SCSI or host
bus hardware. The firmware download can either be used
to
configure the board for one of the two main modes or to
upgrade the board
to
a later revision of firmware for a particu-
lar mode.
The Standard Mode allows software drivers written for the
AHA-1540 or AHA-1640 families to run unaltered on the AHA-
1740 family. There is no performance penalty for this. The
AHA-1740 performs 32-bit transfers at speeds up
to
33
MBytes/second and can operate 10 MByte/second Fast SCSI
transfers.
The Enhanced Mode allows the board to take advantage of a
number of features which were not available on earlier host
adapters. These include:
4-1