Silicon Image based Sata/IDE controllers that are flashable or not

#1

Hi,

after some discussion here (http://club.cdfreaks.com/f7/sata-ide-converter-235682/), I thought it is a good idea to have a collection of controller cards which are flashable (or not).

Some cards are not flashable since Silicon Image supports only a few flash chips. See the “How to update Bios” document on Silicon Image support website.

I suggest this structure:

[ul]
[li]Brand Model# (mode out-of-the-box)[/li][li]Additional information[/li][li]Chipset[/li][li]Flash information[/li][li]Availability (optional: price information)[/li][/ul]

Let me start with these:

#1:

[ul]
[li]Delock 70096 (Sata Raid)[/li][li]2 Sata ports[/li][li]SiI 3512[/li][li]Flashable within DOS and Windows[/li][li]Available in several european countries (~ 11 €)[/li][/ul]

#2:

[ul]
[li]Delock 70098 (IDE Raid)[/li][li]2 IDE ports (up to 4 drives)[/li][li]SiI 0680A[/li][li]Flashable within DOS only[/li]The driver for the Raid version is too old to have the “Flash Bios” functionality. After having flashed the card to non-Raid and installing latest drivers, the “Flash Bios” functionality is present.

[li]Available in several european countries (~ 12 €)[/li][/ul]

#2

#3

[ul]
[li]Rosewill RC-209-EX, SATA RAID[/li][li]6 SATA ports (up to 4 internal or 2 internal and 2 external devices)[/li][li]SiI 3114[/li][li]Eon EN29LV040B, 4-Mb, flashable in DOS[/li][li]Available at Newegg, $25 USD[/li][/ul]

#4

[ul]
[li]Sabrent SBT-SRD4, SATA RAID[/li][li]4 SATA ports (up to 4 devices)[/li][li]SiI 3114[/li][li]AMD AM28F010A, 1-Mb, NON-FLASHABLE, Tigerdirect version[/li][li]Bought from Tigerdirect, $25 USD, or available on Newegg, $28 USD[/li][/ul]

#5

[ul]
[li]CompUSA-branded, SATA RAID[/li][li]4 SATA ports (up to 2 internal or 2 external devices)[/li][li]SiI 3512[/li][li]Eon EN29LV040A, 4-Mb, flashable in DOS[/li][li]Not available anymore, bought from Microcenter when it absorbed some CompUSA stock, was $15 USD[/li][/ul]

#6

[ul]
[li]SIIG SC-PE4B12-S4, IDE RAID[/li][li]2 IDE ports (up to 4 devices)[/li][li]SiI 680A[/li][li]SST 39SF010, 1-Mb, flashable in DOS[/li][li]Available at Newegg, $39 USD[/li][/ul]

#7

[ul]
[li]Syba SD-ATA133, IDE RAID and non-RAID[/li][li]2 IDE ports (up to 4 devices)[/li][li]SiI 680A[/li][li]AMD AM29F010B, 1-Mb, flashable in DOS[/li][li]Available at Newegg as RAID, $22.99 USD, or as non-RAID, $16.99 USD[/li][/ul]

DISCLAIMER
There is no guarantee that the flash chips are the same as the ones posted above.

#3

#8:

* Manhattan PCI-IDE
* 2 IDE ports (support 4 drives)
* SiI 0680a
* NOT Flashable within DOS or Windows
* Purchased in Malaysia (about $US 22, Oct.2006)
#4

SYBA SD-SATA-4P PCI SATA Controller Card
4 port PCI card
SIL 3114
Can be flashed in DOS or Windows
Available at NewEgg

#5

That SYBA SD-SATA-4P PCI SATA Controller Card is also available from ChiefPick for $5 less than NewEgg price plus USPS first class shipping is less than $3 compared to $7 shipping from NewEgg. USPS first class took just 5 business days for mine shipped to Georgia.

#6

#10

[ul]
[li]Rosewill RC-209, SATA RAID
[/li][li]6 SATA ports (up to 4 internal or 2 internal and 2 external devices)
[/li][li]SiI 3114
[/li][li]Holtek HT27C010-70, 1-Mb, NON-FLASHABLE
[/li][li]Not available any longer
[/li][/ul]

#7

[QUOTE=KTL;2208049]#10

[ul]
[li]Rosewill RC-209, SATA RAID
[/li][li]6 SATA ports (up to 4 internal or 2 internal and 2 external devices)
[/li][li]SiI 3114
[/li][li]Holtek HT27C010-70, 1-Mb, NON-FLASHABLE
[/li][li]Not available any longer
[/li][/ul][/QUOTE]

I was considering getting that at one point but emailed Rosewill support to find out if it had a flash BIOS first. It didn’t so I didn’t. :wink:

#8

#11

[ul]
[li] CompUSA-branded, PCI SATA (not RAID) SKU #329648; also shown on card is #p143512-2x3b
[/li][li] 4 SATA ports (up to 2 internal or 2 external devices, only 2 at a time)
[/li][li] SiI 3512
[/li][li] HOLTEK HT27C010 – CMOS 128Kx8-Bit OTP EPROM (write once, read-only) , [B]NON-FLASHABLE[/B]
[/li][li] Got it at CompUSA a few years ago, was $20-30, probably not available
[/li][/ul]

#9

great list! thanks

#10

The “How to update Bios” link in first post of this thread no longer works. Does anybody know of an updated link that works?

#11

[QUOTE=bevills1;2270658]The “How to update Bios” link in first post of this thread no longer works. Does anybody know of an updated link that works?[/QUOTE]This should work:
http://www.siliconimage.com/support/faq.aspx#q5 (Took me one minute to find :smiley: )
PDF document: http://www.siliconimage.com/docs/SII-TT-0003.pdf

:wink:

#12

[QUOTE=KTL;2128119]
#7

[ul]
[li]Syba SD-ATA133, IDE RAID and non-RAID
[/li][li]2 IDE ports (up to 4 devices)
[/li][li]SiI 680A
[/li][li]AMD AM29F010B, 1-Mb, flashable in DOS
[/li][li]Available at Newegg as RAID, $22.99 USD, or as non-RAID, $16.99 USD
[/li][/ul][/QUOTE]

According to the SiI website, this chip is flashable using their Windows flash utility. Can anyone confirm that?

#13

The Syba link from the KTL post no longer works, but if it’s the same Syba adapter at http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815124020, then it is flashable. I purchased one of them, and it flashed and worked without problem. I’ve also read other posts on CDFreaks where users have had good results with this card.

#14

Hi,[QUOTE=Saucerful;2311246]According to the SiI website, this chip is flashable using their Windows flash utility. Can anyone confirm that?[/QUOTE]My personal experience with a 0680A card was, that I needed to flash from plain DOS. The Windows drivers for the Raid mode were too old and didn’t come with the GUI flash tool built-in.

Michael

#15

My flash was done from Windows to non RAID, IDE mode on an old Dell 4550 without RAID, and there were no issues. I have no experience flashing to RAID mode for which DOS flash may be needed.

#16

It was just the other way round with my card, which came as Raid.
After having installed latest Raid drivers (running W2k here), there was still no “Flash” tab in the properties of the driver. And if I remember correctly, there wasn’t the SiI applet in Control Panel either.
So I had to use the DOS tool to flash my card from Raid to non-Raid.

Michael

#17 
The SiFlashTool.exe supports the following Silicon Image, Inc. controllers.
 
[B]SiI 0680
SiI 3x12
SiI 3114
SiI 3124
SiI 3132 [/B]

  SiFlashTool .exe supports the following flash memory chips:
 
·	[B]AMD Am29F010B
·	AMD Am29LV010B
·	AMD Am29LV040B
·	AMD Am29LV400BB
·	AMD Am29LV400BT
·	Atmel AT29LV010A
·	Atmel AT49BV512
·	Macronix MX29LV004B
·	Macronix MX29LV004T
·	Macronix MX29LV040
·	Macronix MX29LV400B
·	Macronix MX29LV400T
·	Sanyo LE28C1001D
·	SST 39SF010
·	SST 39SF020
·	SST 39VF010
·	SST 39VF020
·	ST Micro M29F010B
·	ST Micro M29W040B
·	ST Micro M29W400DB
·	ST Micro M29W400DT
·	Winbond W29C011A
·	Winbond W29EE512[/B]
 

Procedures to run SiFlashTool .exe
·	Open Windows command prompt
·	Change to a directory where the SiFlashTool .exe and BIOS binary file are located.
·	Run SiFlashTool to update the flash memory with BIOS binary code

The SiFlashTool.exe command line syntax is as follows:

SiFlashTool [/BusNum:xx /DevNum:xx] [/File:filespec] [/v]
Where:

BusNum / DevNum: These parameters specify the PCI bus and device number respectively of a Silicon Image storage controller. These parameters only need to be used if there is more than one Silicon Image storage controller in the system.
File:  This parameter specifies the path and name of the BIOS image file to be programmed.
/V: This switch causes the program to only display the version number of a controller's BIOS.  No BIOS image is programmed when this switch is used.  The /File parameter is ignored if specified along with this switch.  If /BusNum and/or /Devnum are specified, then only the BIOS versions of controller's at the specified PCI locations are displayed.

The following list identifies SiFlashTool.exe return codes noted when the program exits.
·	0 	– BIOS update succeeded. SiFlashTool successfully confirmed a match between the bin file and resulting FLASH contents.
·	1	 – Invalid parameter value specified.
·	2	 – Unrecognized parameter specified.
·	3 	– SiFlashTool does not support the implemented FLASH chip.
·	4 	– Silicon Image controller not found.
·	5 	– BIOS image file was not found.
·	6 	– Error encountered while reading the BIOS image file.
·	7 	– Image file is too large for the implemented FLASH ship. Download was aborted.
·	8 	– Failed to perform FLASH chip erase before writing the BIOS to the FLASH chip.
·	9 	– Failed to perform a FLASHchip write.
·	10 	– After writing BIOS to the FLASH chip, failed to verify FLASH chip contents to the BIN file.
·	11 	– Incorrect controller selected

This from SiI document that came with my latest SiL0680 bios.
[B]Note[/B], SiFlash is a command line tool. Not sure if a GUI version exists. :slight_smile:

#18

I have a Bytecc SiI3512 PCI card.

http://www.byteccusa.com/product/PCI/PCI-SATA-150/PCI-SATA-150.htm

This card came with the SATARaid BIOS, and
it uses the EN29LV040A flash memory.

I see in an earlier post (#2 by KTL) that this
device is flashable in DOS. But when I try, the
flash utility requests that I choose from a
list of flash chip parts.

Which one should I choose?

(I’m using the latest Silicon Image flash utility - UpdFlash ver3.36)

#19

Which one should I choose?

Using updflash.exe select “Pm39LV040 4MB compatible” to flash via DOS.

My SIL3132 card uses the same flash chip.

#20

Thanks for the reply, zhadoom.

So, do you think I should wait for other opinions? ; )
How did you decide to choose “Pm39LV040 4MB compatible”?