Vista - Work around Sil 3x12 SATA RAID chipsets and Vista; Gigabyte to take the lead in supporting legacy Silicon Image 3x12 SATA RAID chipsets after friendly wake up call's

Hi everybody

Somewhere down the line it was doubted by a Microsoft MVP that 4 year old
motherboards with a legacy Silicon Image 3x12 SATA RAID controller would be
supported under Vista.

Now that would be rather unexpected in the USA indeed, but The Netherlands
and the European Union as a whole for that matter have different rules.

Recent court cases support enhanced support of products, long after the
warranty period has expired!

Another aspect of this case are European liability rules. In the Netherlands
that is called ''De wet ketenaansprakelijkheid''. If your wondering how to
pronounce that, rent K-911, a splendid movie! :-)

In plain English that means that the producer of a driver that was embedded
in other products and responsible for damage can be sued directly.

MVP comment:

<<The computer industry just doesn't work
that way. There is not enough profit in a product to develop for it after
you quit manufacturing it.
>>

I know, thats whý law enforcement has been invented. Dutch consumer
organisations have been rather effective in enforcing rules about product
continuation., backed up by the European Union.

That's why I have been carefull investing in own software development
projects and specially carefull about what is put in SLA's.

Watch out to restrict liability to heavy for a product that really gets
popular because that's really inviting the legal sharks for breakfast :-).
That won't be breakfast at Tiffany's :-).

Gigabyte

As a matter of fact, after some friendly wakeup calls Gigabyte Taiwan
decided to support the Silicon Image 3x12 SATA I RAID chipsets after the
region manager Benelux and Nordics had been explained what consqeuences not
deleviring drivers would have.

As Gigabyte is also producing for renowned brands this means a significant
expansion of devices supported by Vista

This is my wrap up of the case:

Gigabyte takes the lead in legacy support for Vista drivers

Although it is the distribution responsibility of motherboard manufacturers
like Gigabyte and Abit to supply a customized SATA Vista driver for the
Silicon Image 3x12 (and later versions), they have to wait for Silicon Image
microcode before they can adapt that code and recompile a dedicated driver
for all involved legacy or near legacy motherboards.

Gigabyte is the first to make a statement indicating that as soon as Silicon
Image delivers the microcode, Gigabyte will start customization for the
Silicon Image 3x12 RAID controllers. See attached statement from Gigabyte
Taiwan.

This is of course slightly more then changing the .inf, but definitely not a
long process.

Microsoft should be happy with Gigabyte, as the usefulness of much useful
legacy or near legacy equipment is extended by this and makes involved
equipment suitable for a Windows Platform upgrade.



Meanwhile owners of Sil 3x12 chipsets should take a couple of things into
consideration when using Vista beta's with embedded versions of a Silicon
Image Sil 3x12 SATA RAID chipset.



Seven steps to an sane Vista system with the Silicon Image 3x12 SATA RAID
controller J

1.. Download the Silicon Image base version (when only 1 disk is attached
to the SATA controllerattached) and Raid driver (when attaching two drives
regardless of the fact that they are in a non raid configuration or else)
from the Silicon Image website and expand these drivers to an USB stick
2.. Boot from the Vista beta dvd
3.. Have the base or raid (with a r extension) driver ready on an USB
stick attached to the system
4.. load the base or raid driver during a clean install of Vista beta2 (I
used build 5472) on to an classic ATA boot disk partition
5.. The Vista install will immediately see the SATA disks, thus preventing
a later mix up of drive letters
6.. Silicon Image (or any mobo manufacturer) does not recommend this while
the driver is originally designed for Silicon Image own pci 3x12 SATA Raid
controllers, not for embedded systems like on motherboards, but it works so
far
7.. Check Vista's version of Windows update on a regular basis. All
suppliers that have their -Signed and Windows Vista Logo compatible- Vista
drivers ready will post them for distribution through the Microsoft Windows
Update system.
<Gigabyte Taiwan statement:

"As for the issue upon Silicon Imgae RAID 3112 chipset of not able to
support VISTA Beta:

1) Vista Beta is not an official release retail OS, its major purpose is for
Hardware / Software manufacturers to validate their products. And of course,
during this validation period uncompatible issues might be found.

2) When uncompatible issues are found, it is confirmed either/both Microsoft
or Silicon Image are responsible to find solutions. When there are new
solutions drivers available
the chipset vendor will then provide to us. After that we will definitly
provide the new drivers on our website for end-user to update."

Kind regards,

Tony Thijs

Oriolus:

Tony Thijs wrote:
> Hi everybody
>
> Somewhere down the line it was doubted by a Microsoft MVP that 4 year
> old motherboards with a legacy Silicon Image 3x12 SATA RAID
> controller would be supported under Vista.
>

That was me and I stand by what I said. I never said that Gigabyte wouldn't
provide drivers. I said it wouldn't surprise me if they didn't. I went on to
say that it was very likely that by the time the RTM version was available
there would be support for your RAID controller. It is doubtful that a
successful suit could be brought against a company for not supporting an
unreleased operating system that didn't exist when a product was
manufactured. Even in the Netherlands this would be stretching the concept
of support.

I like Gigabyte products and almost exclusively use them in my business. The
computer industry moves very quickly and it is normal that there is no
driver development for discontinued products beyond supporting what was
available before the product became discontinued. I'm happy for you that
Gigabyte is supporting your motherboard. One of the reasons I sell Gigabyte
products is because they offer better support than most motherboard
manufacturers.

--
Kerry
MS-MVP Windows - Shell/User
www.VistaHelp.ca

"Tony Thijs" <tonythecatmiauw@community.nospam> wrote in message
news:ugaFOIFuGHA.4612@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...
> Hi everybody
>
> Somewhere down the line it was doubted by a Microsoft MVP that 4 year old
> motherboards with a legacy Silicon Image 3x12 SATA RAID controller would
> be supported under Vista.
>
> Now that would be rather unexpected in the USA indeed, but The Netherlands
> and the European Union as a whole for that matter have different rules.
>
> Recent court cases support enhanced support of products, long after the
> warranty period has expired!
>
> Another aspect of this case are European liability rules. In the
> Netherlands that is called ''De wet ketenaansprakelijkheid''. If your
> wondering how to pronounce that, rent K-911, a splendid movie! :-)
>
> In plain English that means that the producer of a driver that was
> embedded in other products and responsible for damage can be sued
> directly.
>
> MVP comment:
>
> <<The computer industry just doesn't work
> that way. There is not enough profit in a product to develop for it after
> you quit manufacturing it.
>>>
>
> I know, thats whý law enforcement has been invented. Dutch consumer
> organisations have been rather effective in enforcing rules about product
> continuation., backed up by the European Union.
>
> That's why I have been carefull investing in own software development
> projects and specially carefull about what is put in SLA's.
>
> Watch out to restrict liability to heavy for a product that really gets
> popular because that's really inviting the legal sharks for breakfast :-).
> That won't be breakfast at Tiffany's :-).
>
> Gigabyte
>
> As a matter of fact, after some friendly wakeup calls Gigabyte Taiwan
> decided to support the Silicon Image 3x12 SATA I RAID chipsets after the
> region manager Benelux and Nordics had been explained what consqeuences
> not deleviring drivers would have.
>
> As Gigabyte is also producing for renowned brands this means a
> significant expansion of devices supported by Vista
>
> This is my wrap up of the case:
>
> Gigabyte takes the lead in legacy support for Vista drivers
>
> Although it is the distribution responsibility of motherboard
> manufacturers like Gigabyte and Abit to supply a customized SATA Vista
> driver for the Silicon Image 3x12 (and later versions), they have to wait
> for Silicon Image microcode before they can adapt that code and recompile
> a dedicated driver for all involved legacy or near legacy motherboards.
>
> Gigabyte is the first to make a statement indicating that as soon as
> Silicon Image delivers the microcode, Gigabyte will start customization
> for the Silicon Image 3x12 RAID controllers. See attached statement from
> Gigabyte Taiwan.
>
> This is of course slightly more then changing the .inf, but definitely not
> a long process.
>
> Microsoft should be happy with Gigabyte, as the usefulness of much useful
> legacy or near legacy equipment is extended by this and makes involved
> equipment suitable for a Windows Platform upgrade.
>
>
>
> Meanwhile owners of Sil 3x12 chipsets should take a couple of things into
> consideration when using Vista beta's with embedded versions of a Silicon
> Image Sil 3x12 SATA RAID chipset.
>
>
>
> Seven steps to an sane Vista system with the Silicon Image 3x12 SATA RAID
> controller J
>
> 1.. Download the Silicon Image base version (when only 1 disk is attached
> to the SATA controllerattached) and Raid driver (when attaching two drives
> regardless of the fact that they are in a non raid configuration or else)
> from the Silicon Image website and expand these drivers to an USB stick
> 2.. Boot from the Vista beta dvd
> 3.. Have the base or raid (with a r extension) driver ready on an USB
> stick attached to the system
> 4.. load the base or raid driver during a clean install of Vista beta2 (I
> used build 5472) on to an classic ATA boot disk partition
> 5.. The Vista install will immediately see the SATA disks, thus
> preventing a later mix up of drive letters
> 6.. Silicon Image (or any mobo manufacturer) does not recommend this
> while the driver is originally designed for Silicon Image own pci 3x12
> SATA Raid controllers, not for embedded systems like on motherboards, but
> it works so far
> 7.. Check Vista's version of Windows update on a regular basis. All
> suppliers that have their -Signed and Windows Vista Logo compatible- Vista
> drivers ready will post them for distribution through the Microsoft
> Windows Update system.
> <Gigabyte Taiwan statement:
>
> "As for the issue upon Silicon Imgae RAID 3112 chipset of not able to
> support VISTA Beta:
>
> 1) Vista Beta is not an official release retail OS, its major purpose is
> for Hardware / Software manufacturers to validate their products. And of
> course,
> during this validation period uncompatible issues might be found.
>
> 2) When uncompatible issues are found, it is confirmed either/both
> Microsoft or Silicon Image are responsible to find solutions. When there
> are new solutions drivers available
> the chipset vendor will then provide to us. After that we will
> definitly provide the new drivers on our website for end-user to update."
>
> Kind regards,
>
> Tony Thijs
>
> Oriolus:
>
>

Using this same logic, will Saab have to redesign the Sonnet to comply with
the new EU front-end crash specifications?

<<better support >>
I'm afraid that initially the attitude of gigabyte was quite diffrent.
Litterally translated they wrote:,,I hope you don't think we are going to
release adriver only for you?''
I have experienced a total desinterest in the subject for about two months.
Only after a consumer organisation was about to raise hell and fire they
were willing to put this on the agenda in Taiwan.
Of course I don't expect a ready driver during beta2. I do expect a clear
vision and perspective. Not no brainers like:,,We will only develop a driver
for this motherboard if the market demand is big enough. And with big they
did not mean any odd person.
In short I had to be ready to throw a big book at them before their attitude
changed.
I'm happy to hear that in other parts of the world they have a better
reputation.
As I wrote somewhere, :,,their products are not bad.
Kind regards
Tony Thijs

"Kerry Brown" <kerry@kdbNOSPAMsys-tems.c*a*m> wrote in message
news:%23kHl8TJuGHA.4336@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl...
> Tony Thijs wrote:
>> Hi everybody
>>
>> Somewhere down the line it was doubted by a Microsoft MVP that 4 year
>> old motherboards with a legacy Silicon Image 3x12 SATA RAID
>> controller would be supported under Vista.
>>
>
> That was me and I stand by what I said. I never said that Gigabyte
> wouldn't provide drivers. I said it wouldn't surprise me if they didn't. I
> went on to say that it was very likely that by the time the RTM version
> was available there would be support for your RAID controller. It is
> doubtful that a successful suit could be brought against a company for not
> supporting an unreleased operating system that didn't exist when a product
> was manufactured. Even in the Netherlands this would be stretching the
> concept of support.
>
> I like Gigabyte products and almost exclusively use them in my business.
> The computer industry moves very quickly and it is normal that there is no
> driver development for discontinued products beyond supporting what was
> available before the product became discontinued. I'm happy for you that
> Gigabyte is supporting your motherboard. One of the reasons I sell
> Gigabyte products is because they offer better support than most
> motherboard manufacturers.
>
> --
> Kerry
> MS-MVP Windows - Shell/User
> www.VistaHelp.ca
>
>

Of course not. If the car metaphore is extended to this case I would compare
the case with the way Volkswagen, Peugot, BMW, Mercedes and others are
providing add on particle filters for their ,,legacy'' diesel models to make
them comply more with new pollution regulations Thus driving down the
roadtax for those models.
All that is well within reasonable limits of engineering as is adapting the
..inf of a Silicon Image supplied driver.and adding a Gigabyte signature to
the basic code, thus producing a signed driver.
Kind regards,
Tony Thijs
Oriolus

"Mark D. VandenBerg" <mvan103REMOVE@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:35435B80-3EBD-4E79-A74A-960B372BB08C@microsoft.com...
> "Tony Thijs" <tonythecatmiauw@community.nospam> wrote in message
> news:ugaFOIFuGHA.4612@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...
>> Hi everybody
>>
>> Somewhere down the line it was doubted by a Microsoft MVP that 4 year old
>> motherboards with a legacy Silicon Image 3x12 SATA RAID controller would
>> be supported under Vista.
>>
>> Now that would be rather unexpected in the USA indeed, but The
>> Netherlands and the European Union as a whole for that matter have
>> different rules.
>>
>> Recent court cases support enhanced support of products, long after the
>> warranty period has expired!
>>
>> Another aspect of this case are European liability rules. In the
>> Netherlands that is called ''De wet ketenaansprakelijkheid''. If your
>> wondering how to pronounce that, rent K-911, a splendid movie! :-)
>>
>> In plain English that means that the producer of a driver that was
>> embedded in other products and responsible for damage can be sued
>> directly.
>>
>> MVP comment:
>>
>> <<The computer industry just doesn't work
>> that way. There is not enough profit in a product to develop for it after
>> you quit manufacturing it.
>>>>
>>
>> I know, thats whý law enforcement has been invented. Dutch consumer
>> organisations have been rather effective in enforcing rules about product
>> continuation., backed up by the European Union.
>>
>> That's why I have been carefull investing in own software development
>> projects and specially carefull about what is put in SLA's.
>>
>> Watch out to restrict liability to heavy for a product that really gets
>> popular because that's really inviting the legal sharks for breakfast
>> :-). That won't be breakfast at Tiffany's :-).
>>
>> Gigabyte
>>
>> As a matter of fact, after some friendly wakeup calls Gigabyte Taiwan
>> decided to support the Silicon Image 3x12 SATA I RAID chipsets after the
>> region manager Benelux and Nordics had been explained what consqeuences
>> not deleviring drivers would have.
>>
>> As Gigabyte is also producing for renowned brands this means a
>> significant expansion of devices supported by Vista
>>
>> This is my wrap up of the case:
>>
>> Gigabyte takes the lead in legacy support for Vista drivers
>>
>> Although it is the distribution responsibility of motherboard
>> manufacturers like Gigabyte and Abit to supply a customized SATA Vista
>> driver for the Silicon Image 3x12 (and later versions), they have to wait
>> for Silicon Image microcode before they can adapt that code and recompile
>> a dedicated driver for all involved legacy or near legacy motherboards.
>>
>> Gigabyte is the first to make a statement indicating that as soon as
>> Silicon Image delivers the microcode, Gigabyte will start customization
>> for the Silicon Image 3x12 RAID controllers. See attached statement from
>> Gigabyte Taiwan.
>>
>> This is of course slightly more then changing the .inf, but definitely
>> not a long process.
>>
>> Microsoft should be happy with Gigabyte, as the usefulness of much useful
>> legacy or near legacy equipment is extended by this and makes involved
>> equipment suitable for a Windows Platform upgrade.
>>
>>
>>
>> Meanwhile owners of Sil 3x12 chipsets should take a couple of things into
>> consideration when using Vista beta's with embedded versions of a Silicon
>> Image Sil 3x12 SATA RAID chipset.
>>
>>
>>
>> Seven steps to an sane Vista system with the Silicon Image 3x12 SATA RAID
>> controller J
>>
>> 1.. Download the Silicon Image base version (when only 1 disk is
>> attached to the SATA controllerattached) and Raid driver (when attaching
>> two drives regardless of the fact that they are in a non raid
>> configuration or else) from the Silicon Image website and expand these
>> drivers to an USB stick
>> 2.. Boot from the Vista beta dvd
>> 3.. Have the base or raid (with a r extension) driver ready on an USB
>> stick attached to the system
>> 4.. load the base or raid driver during a clean install of Vista beta2
>> (I used build 5472) on to an classic ATA boot disk partition
>> 5.. The Vista install will immediately see the SATA disks, thus
>> preventing a later mix up of drive letters
>> 6.. Silicon Image (or any mobo manufacturer) does not recommend this
>> while the driver is originally designed for Silicon Image own pci 3x12
>> SATA Raid controllers, not for embedded systems like on motherboards, but
>> it works so far
>> 7.. Check Vista's version of Windows update on a regular basis. All
>> suppliers that have their -Signed and Windows Vista Logo compatible-
>> Vista drivers ready will post them for distribution through the Microsoft
>> Windows Update system.
>> <Gigabyte Taiwan statement:
>>
>> "As for the issue upon Silicon Imgae RAID 3112 chipset of not able to
>> support VISTA Beta:
>>
>> 1) Vista Beta is not an official release retail OS, its major purpose is
>> for Hardware / Software manufacturers to validate their products. And of
>> course,
>> during this validation period uncompatible issues might be found.
>>
>> 2) When uncompatible issues are found, it is confirmed either/both
>> Microsoft or Silicon Image are responsible to find solutions. When there
>> are new solutions drivers available
>> the chipset vendor will then provide to us. After that we will
>> definitly provide the new drivers on our website for end-user to update."
>>
>> Kind regards,
>>
>> Tony Thijs
>>
>> Oriolus:
>>
>>
>
> Using this same logic, will Saab have to redesign the Sonnet to comply
> with the new EU front-end crash specifications?

I do find topics such as this quite interesting. Globalization of products
and services comes with new challenges, such as each country having its own
laws and views regarding support and implementation. While in the
Netherlands (and I am sure many other places), support for a product may be
mandated as a matter of law, while in other countries, it is not. Apple is
just now finding out the cost of doing iPod business in France, for
instance. Unfortunately, global universality will be much farther in the
future than I can ever expect to see.

On topic, good for you that the drivers will be created!

Off topic, my family originated from Schipliuden (near Delft) and we still
have a farm there. I have family in Delft, Rotterdam, Capelle a/d Ijssel,
Hamstede, (sorry for spelling errors) all over South Holland, really. What
part of the Netherlands are you from?
--
Best Regards,

Mark

My favourite so far: Unknown device has been correctly installed.


"Tony Thijs" <tonythecatmiauw@community.nospam> wrote in message
news:O2gAvwKuGHA.3364@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...
> Of course not. If the car metaphore is extended to this case I would
> compare the case with the way Volkswagen, Peugot, BMW, Mercedes and others
> are providing add on particle filters for their ,,legacy'' diesel models
> to make them comply more with new pollution regulations Thus driving down
> the roadtax for those models.
> All that is well within reasonable limits of engineering as is adapting
> the .inf of a Silicon Image supplied driver.and adding a Gigabyte
> signature to the basic code, thus producing a signed driver.
> Kind regards,
> Tony Thijs
> Oriolus
>
>

I thought so considering your last name. You made me think of one Aurelia
with your last name. Haven't mailed her in ages.
I'm from The Hague, the residence of the Netherlands. I've started my career
in 1980 building scientific knowledge bases for the European Community's
Joint Research Cener.
Afterwards I started working for one of Microsoft's first partners in the
Netherlands and got involved with Windows 2.11 to start with.
My first day on the job was typical for the rest of my career. I was shown
around and when I passes somebody that turned out to be theit senior
programmer his PC chrashed in a way that was all to familiar to me.
,,You are using Windows 2.08 and the C 4.0 compiler. That won't work''.
,,Yes'' the guy said sadly, ,,I'm starting that to realize to after 3 days
of hard work.''
The essence of globalization, adapting products to cultures, is pretty hard
if not totally impossible to grasp for people that speak only one language.
One recent project of mine included writing a dictionary around the
Microsoft Benelux Millennium checker in tree languages, test the thing and
make it backwards compatible from Wondows 3.0 up to and including the beta 3
of Windows 2000.
The sheer number of intercultural issues you then meet is large enough to
nuttify a saint.
Luckily one uncle of mine taught me Latin and French at primary school.
,,That's all you going to need as a diplomat he said''. :-)
Of course I managed to master English and German on top of that which made
me very suitable for my first database job at the JRC.
EU
As for now I allmost pitty Microsoft for the standoff between them and the
European Commission.
Best regards,
Tony Thijs




"Mark D. VandenBerg" <mvan103REMOVE@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:86FDD6FA-C362-422D-B81C-ED575C3A7047@microsoft.com...
>I do find topics such as this quite interesting. Globalization of products
>and services comes with new challenges, such as each country having its own
>laws and views regarding support and implementation. While in the
>Netherlands (and I am sure many other places), support for a product may be
>mandated as a matter of law, while in other countries, it is not. Apple is
>just now finding out the cost of doing iPod business in France, for
>instance. Unfortunately, global universality will be much farther in the
>future than I can ever expect to see.
>
> On topic, good for you that the drivers will be created!
>
> Off topic, my family originated from Schipliuden (near Delft) and we still
> have a farm there. I have family in Delft, Rotterdam, Capelle a/d Ijssel,
> Hamstede, (sorry for spelling errors) all over South Holland, really.
> What part of the Netherlands are you from?
> --
> Best Regards,
>
> Mark
>
> My favourite so far: Unknown device has been correctly installed.
>
>
> "Tony Thijs" <tonythecatmiauw@community.nospam> wrote in message
> news:O2gAvwKuGHA.3364@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...
>> Of course not. If the car metaphore is extended to this case I would
>> compare the case with the way Volkswagen, Peugot, BMW, Mercedes and
>> others are providing add on particle filters for their ,,legacy'' diesel
>> models to make them comply more with new pollution regulations Thus
>> driving down the roadtax for those models.
>> All that is well within reasonable limits of engineering as is adapting
>> the .inf of a Silicon Image supplied driver.and adding a Gigabyte
>> signature to the basic code, thus producing a signed driver.
>> Kind regards,
>> Tony Thijs
>> Oriolus
>>
>>

I have had absolutely no problem using the XP drivers for my on motherboard
SI 3112 SATA RAID setup with either the Beta 2 or the July CTP versions of
Vista. I did not need any complicated workaround. (Abit NF7-S V2).

Mike Bernstein

"Tony Thijs" <tonythecatmiauw@community.nospam> wrote in message
news:ugaFOIFuGHA.4612@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...
> Hi everybody
>
> Somewhere down the line it was doubted by a Microsoft MVP that 4 year old
> motherboards with a legacy Silicon Image 3x12 SATA RAID controller would
> be supported under Vista.
>
> Now that would be rather unexpected in the USA indeed, but The Netherlands
> and the European Union as a whole for that matter have different rules.
>
> Recent court cases support enhanced support of products, long after the
> warranty period has expired!
>
> Another aspect of this case are European liability rules. In the
> Netherlands that is called ''De wet ketenaansprakelijkheid''. If your
> wondering how to pronounce that, rent K-911, a splendid movie! :-)
>
> In plain English that means that the producer of a driver that was
> embedded in other products and responsible for damage can be sued
> directly.
>
> MVP comment:
>
> <<The computer industry just doesn't work
> that way. There is not enough profit in a product to develop for it after
> you quit manufacturing it.
>>>
>
> I know, thats whý law enforcement has been invented. Dutch consumer
> organisations have been rather effective in enforcing rules about product
> continuation., backed up by the European Union.
>
> That's why I have been carefull investing in own software development
> projects and specially carefull about what is put in SLA's.
>
> Watch out to restrict liability to heavy for a product that really gets
> popular because that's really inviting the legal sharks for breakfast :-).
> That won't be breakfast at Tiffany's :-).
>
> Gigabyte
>
> As a matter of fact, after some friendly wakeup calls Gigabyte Taiwan
> decided to support the Silicon Image 3x12 SATA I RAID chipsets after the
> region manager Benelux and Nordics had been explained what consqeuences
> not deleviring drivers would have.
>
> As Gigabyte is also producing for renowned brands this means a
> significant expansion of devices supported by Vista
>
> This is my wrap up of the case:
>
> Gigabyte takes the lead in legacy support for Vista drivers
>
> Although it is the distribution responsibility of motherboard
> manufacturers like Gigabyte and Abit to supply a customized SATA Vista
> driver for the Silicon Image 3x12 (and later versions), they have to wait
> for Silicon Image microcode before they can adapt that code and recompile
> a dedicated driver for all involved legacy or near legacy motherboards.
>
> Gigabyte is the first to make a statement indicating that as soon as
> Silicon Image delivers the microcode, Gigabyte will start customization
> for the Silicon Image 3x12 RAID controllers. See attached statement from
> Gigabyte Taiwan.
>
> This is of course slightly more then changing the .inf, but definitely not
> a long process.
>
> Microsoft should be happy with Gigabyte, as the usefulness of much useful
> legacy or near legacy equipment is extended by this and makes involved
> equipment suitable for a Windows Platform upgrade.
>
>
>
> Meanwhile owners of Sil 3x12 chipsets should take a couple of things into
> consideration when using Vista beta's with embedded versions of a Silicon
> Image Sil 3x12 SATA RAID chipset.
>
>
>
> Seven steps to an sane Vista system with the Silicon Image 3x12 SATA RAID
> controller J
>
> 1.. Download the Silicon Image base version (when only 1 disk is attached
> to the SATA controllerattached) and Raid driver (when attaching two drives
> regardless of the fact that they are in a non raid configuration or else)
> from the Silicon Image website and expand these drivers to an USB stick
> 2.. Boot from the Vista beta dvd
> 3.. Have the base or raid (with a r extension) driver ready on an USB
> stick attached to the system
> 4.. load the base or raid driver during a clean install of Vista beta2 (I
> used build 5472) on to an classic ATA boot disk partition
> 5.. The Vista install will immediately see the SATA disks, thus
> preventing a later mix up of drive letters
> 6.. Silicon Image (or any mobo manufacturer) does not recommend this
> while the driver is originally designed for Silicon Image own pci 3x12
> SATA Raid controllers, not for embedded systems like on motherboards, but
> it works so far
> 7.. Check Vista's version of Windows update on a regular basis. All
> suppliers that have their -Signed and Windows Vista Logo compatible- Vista
> drivers ready will post them for distribution through the Microsoft
> Windows Update system.
> <Gigabyte Taiwan statement:
>
> "As for the issue upon Silicon Imgae RAID 3112 chipset of not able to
> support VISTA Beta:
>
> 1) Vista Beta is not an official release retail OS, its major purpose is
> for Hardware / Software manufacturers to validate their products. And of
> course,
> during this validation period uncompatible issues might be found.
>
> 2) When uncompatible issues are found, it is confirmed either/both
> Microsoft or Silicon Image are responsible to find solutions. When there
> are new solutions drivers available
> the chipset vendor will then provide to us. After that we will
> definitly provide the new drivers on our website for end-user to update."
>
> Kind regards,
>
> Tony Thijs
>
> Oriolus:
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>

Thanks for the info. The Gigabyte XP drivers under Vista looked at NTFS
partitions as a FAT fliesystem from the eighties. Later drivers would
notinstall.
According to Silicon Image the mobo manufacturers are responsible for those
drivers. Apparently Abit is doing a good job whereas Gigabyte has not.
Kind regards,
Tony Thijs

"Mike Bernstein" <mike.bernstein@REMOVECAPSchemlaw.co.uk> wrote in message
news:ermTcRsuGHA.5076@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
>I have had absolutely no problem using the XP drivers for my on motherboard
> SI 3112 SATA RAID setup with either the Beta 2 or the July CTP versions of
> Vista. I did not need any complicated workaround. (Abit NF7-S V2).
>
> Mike Bernstein
>
> "Tony Thijs" <tonythecatmiauw@community.nospam> wrote in message
> news:ugaFOIFuGHA.4612@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...
>> Hi everybody
>>
>> Somewhere down the line it was doubted by a Microsoft MVP that 4 year old
>> motherboards with a legacy Silicon Image 3x12 SATA RAID controller would
>> be supported under Vista.
>>
>> Now that would be rather unexpected in the USA indeed, but The
>> Netherlands and the European Union as a whole for that matter have
>> different rules.
>>
>> Recent court cases support enhanced support of products, long after the
>> warranty period has expired!
>>
>> Another aspect of this case are European liability rules. In the
>> Netherlands that is called ''De wet ketenaansprakelijkheid''. If your
>> wondering how to pronounce that, rent K-911, a splendid movie! :-)
>>
>> In plain English that means that the producer of a driver that was
>> embedded in other products and responsible for damage can be sued
>> directly.
>>
>> MVP comment:
>>
>> <<The computer industry just doesn't work
>> that way. There is not enough profit in a product to develop for it after
>> you quit manufacturing it.
>>>>
>>
>> I know, thats whý law enforcement has been invented. Dutch consumer
>> organisations have been rather effective in enforcing rules about product
>> continuation., backed up by the European Union.
>>
>> That's why I have been carefull investing in own software development
>> projects and specially carefull about what is put in SLA's.
>>
>> Watch out to restrict liability to heavy for a product that really gets
>> popular because that's really inviting the legal sharks for breakfast
>> :-). That won't be breakfast at Tiffany's :-).
>>
>> Gigabyte
>>
>> As a matter of fact, after some friendly wakeup calls Gigabyte Taiwan
>> decided to support the Silicon Image 3x12 SATA I RAID chipsets after the
>> region manager Benelux and Nordics had been explained what consqeuences
>> not deleviring drivers would have.
>>
>> As Gigabyte is also producing for renowned brands this means a
>> significant expansion of devices supported by Vista
>>
>> This is my wrap up of the case:
>>
>> Gigabyte takes the lead in legacy support for Vista drivers
>>
>> Although it is the distribution responsibility of motherboard
>> manufacturers like Gigabyte and Abit to supply a customized SATA Vista
>> driver for the Silicon Image 3x12 (and later versions), they have to wait
>> for Silicon Image microcode before they can adapt that code and recompile
>> a dedicated driver for all involved legacy or near legacy motherboards.
>>
>> Gigabyte is the first to make a statement indicating that as soon as
>> Silicon Image delivers the microcode, Gigabyte will start customization
>> for the Silicon Image 3x12 RAID controllers. See attached statement from
>> Gigabyte Taiwan.
>>
>> This is of course slightly more then changing the .inf, but definitely
>> not a long process.
>>
>> Microsoft should be happy with Gigabyte, as the usefulness of much useful
>> legacy or near legacy equipment is extended by this and makes involved
>> equipment suitable for a Windows Platform upgrade.
>>
>>
>>
>> Meanwhile owners of Sil 3x12 chipsets should take a couple of things into
>> consideration when using Vista beta's with embedded versions of a Silicon
>> Image Sil 3x12 SATA RAID chipset.
>>
>>
>>
>> Seven steps to an sane Vista system with the Silicon Image 3x12 SATA RAID
>> controller J
>>
>> 1.. Download the Silicon Image base version (when only 1 disk is
>> attached to the SATA controllerattached) and Raid driver (when attaching
>> two drives regardless of the fact that they are in a non raid
>> configuration or else) from the Silicon Image website and expand these
>> drivers to an USB stick
>> 2.. Boot from the Vista beta dvd
>> 3.. Have the base or raid (with a r extension) driver ready on an USB
>> stick attached to the system
>> 4.. load the base or raid driver during a clean install of Vista beta2
>> (I used build 5472) on to an classic ATA boot disk partition
>> 5.. The Vista install will immediately see the SATA disks, thus
>> preventing a later mix up of drive letters
>> 6.. Silicon Image (or any mobo manufacturer) does not recommend this
>> while the driver is originally designed for Silicon Image own pci 3x12
>> SATA Raid controllers, not for embedded systems like on motherboards, but
>> it works so far
>> 7.. Check Vista's version of Windows update on a regular basis. All
>> suppliers that have their -Signed and Windows Vista Logo compatible-
>> Vista drivers ready will post them for distribution through the Microsoft
>> Windows Update system.
>> <Gigabyte Taiwan statement:
>>
>> "As for the issue upon Silicon Imgae RAID 3112 chipset of not able to
>> support VISTA Beta:
>>
>> 1) Vista Beta is not an official release retail OS, its major purpose is
>> for Hardware / Software manufacturers to validate their products. And of
>> course,
>> during this validation period uncompatible issues might be found.
>>
>> 2) When uncompatible issues are found, it is confirmed either/both
>> Microsoft or Silicon Image are responsible to find solutions. When there
>> are new solutions drivers available
>> the chipset vendor will then provide to us. After that we will
>> definitly provide the new drivers on our website for end-user to update."
>>
>> Kind regards,
>>
>> Tony Thijs
>>
>> Oriolus:
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>
>

Actually, the latest XP drivers have come, in XP, from Microsoft Update as
supplied by Silicon Image (V 1.0.56.1). This has nothing to do with Abit (or
Gigabyte). Abit gave up updating the NF7-S V2 some time ago.

Mike Bernstein

"Tony Thijs" <tonythecatmiauw@community.nospam> wrote in message
news:%23XsMKI$uGHA.416@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
> Thanks for the info. The Gigabyte XP drivers under Vista looked at NTFS
> partitions as a FAT fliesystem from the eighties. Later drivers would
> notinstall.
> According to Silicon Image the mobo manufacturers are responsible for
> those drivers. Apparently Abit is doing a good job whereas Gigabyte has
> not.
> Kind regards,
> Tony Thijs
>
> "Mike Bernstein" <mike.bernstein@REMOVECAPSchemlaw.co.uk> wrote in message
> news:ermTcRsuGHA.5076@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
>>I have had absolutely no problem using the XP drivers for my on
>>motherboard
>> SI 3112 SATA RAID setup with either the Beta 2 or the July CTP versions
>> of
>> Vista. I did not need any complicated workaround. (Abit NF7-S V2).
>>
>> Mike Bernstein
>>
>> "Tony Thijs" <tonythecatmiauw@community.nospam> wrote in message
>> news:ugaFOIFuGHA.4612@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...
>>> Hi everybody
>>>
>>> Somewhere down the line it was doubted by a Microsoft MVP that 4 year
>>> old motherboards with a legacy Silicon Image 3x12 SATA RAID controller
>>> would be supported under Vista.
>>>
>>> Now that would be rather unexpected in the USA indeed, but The
>>> Netherlands and the European Union as a whole for that matter have
>>> different rules.
>>>
>>> Recent court cases support enhanced support of products, long after the
>>> warranty period has expired!
>>>
>>> Another aspect of this case are European liability rules. In the
>>> Netherlands that is called ''De wet ketenaansprakelijkheid''. If your
>>> wondering how to pronounce that, rent K-911, a splendid movie! :-)
>>>
>>> In plain English that means that the producer of a driver that was
>>> embedded in other products and responsible for damage can be sued
>>> directly.
>>>
>>> MVP comment:
>>>
>>> <<The computer industry just doesn't work
>>> that way. There is not enough profit in a product to develop for it
>>> after
>>> you quit manufacturing it.
>>>>>
>>>
>>> I know, thats whý law enforcement has been invented. Dutch consumer
>>> organisations have been rather effective in enforcing rules about
>>> product continuation., backed up by the European Union.
>>>
>>> That's why I have been carefull investing in own software development
>>> projects and specially carefull about what is put in SLA's.
>>>
>>> Watch out to restrict liability to heavy for a product that really gets
>>> popular because that's really inviting the legal sharks for breakfast
>>> :-). That won't be breakfast at Tiffany's :-).
>>>
>>> Gigabyte
>>>
>>> As a matter of fact, after some friendly wakeup calls Gigabyte Taiwan
>>> decided to support the Silicon Image 3x12 SATA I RAID chipsets after the
>>> region manager Benelux and Nordics had been explained what consqeuences
>>> not deleviring drivers would have.
>>>
>>> As Gigabyte is also producing for renowned brands this means a
>>> significant expansion of devices supported by Vista
>>>
>>> This is my wrap up of the case:
>>>
>>> Gigabyte takes the lead in legacy support for Vista drivers
>>>
>>> Although it is the distribution responsibility of motherboard
>>> manufacturers like Gigabyte and Abit to supply a customized SATA Vista
>>> driver for the Silicon Image 3x12 (and later versions), they have to
>>> wait for Silicon Image microcode before they can adapt that code and
>>> recompile a dedicated driver for all involved legacy or near legacy
>>> motherboards.
>>>
>>> Gigabyte is the first to make a statement indicating that as soon as
>>> Silicon Image delivers the microcode, Gigabyte will start customization
>>> for the Silicon Image 3x12 RAID controllers. See attached statement from
>>> Gigabyte Taiwan.
>>>
>>> This is of course slightly more then changing the .inf, but definitely
>>> not a long process.
>>>
>>> Microsoft should be happy with Gigabyte, as the usefulness of much
>>> useful legacy or near legacy equipment is extended by this and makes
>>> involved equipment suitable for a Windows Platform upgrade.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Meanwhile owners of Sil 3x12 chipsets should take a couple of things
>>> into consideration when using Vista beta's with embedded versions of a
>>> Silicon Image Sil 3x12 SATA RAID chipset.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Seven steps to an sane Vista system with the Silicon Image 3x12 SATA
>>> RAID controller J
>>>
>>> 1.. Download the Silicon Image base version (when only 1 disk is
>>> attached to the SATA controllerattached) and Raid driver (when attaching
>>> two drives regardless of the fact that they are in a non raid
>>> configuration or else) from the Silicon Image website and expand these
>>> drivers to an USB stick
>>> 2.. Boot from the Vista beta dvd
>>> 3.. Have the base or raid (with a r extension) driver ready on an USB
>>> stick attached to the system
>>> 4.. load the base or raid driver during a clean install of Vista beta2
>>> (I used build 5472) on to an classic ATA boot disk partition
>>> 5.. The Vista install will immediately see the SATA disks, thus
>>> preventing a later mix up of drive letters
>>> 6.. Silicon Image (or any mobo manufacturer) does not recommend this
>>> while the driver is originally designed for Silicon Image own pci 3x12
>>> SATA Raid controllers, not for embedded systems like on motherboards,
>>> but it works so far
>>> 7.. Check Vista's version of Windows update on a regular basis. All
>>> suppliers that have their -Signed and Windows Vista Logo compatible-
>>> Vista drivers ready will post them for distribution through the
>>> Microsoft Windows Update system.
>>> <Gigabyte Taiwan statement:
>>>
>>> "As for the issue upon Silicon Imgae RAID 3112 chipset of not able to
>>> support VISTA Beta:
>>>
>>> 1) Vista Beta is not an official release retail OS, its major purpose is
>>> for Hardware / Software manufacturers to validate their products. And of
>>> course,
>>> during this validation period uncompatible issues might be found.
>>>
>>> 2) When uncompatible issues are found, it is confirmed either/both
>>> Microsoft or Silicon Image are responsible to find solutions. When there
>>> are new solutions drivers available
>>> the chipset vendor will then provide to us. After that we will
>>> definitly provide the new drivers on our website for end-user to
>>> update."
>>>
>>> Kind regards,
>>>
>>> Tony Thijs
>>>
>>> Oriolus:
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>
>