The sym53c500_cs Driver

The sym53c500_cs driver originated as an add-on to David Hinds’ pcmcia-cs package, and was written by Tom Corner (tcorner@via.at). A rewrite was long overdue, and the current version addresses the following concerns:

  1. extensive kernel changes between 2.4 and 2.6.
  2. deprecated PCMCIA support outside the kernel.

All the USE_BIOS code has been ripped out. It was never used, and could not have worked anyway. The USE_DMA code is likewise gone. Many thanks to YOKOTA Hiroshi (nsp_cs driver) and David Hinds (qlogic_cs driver) for the code fragments I shamelessly adapted for this work. Thanks also to Christoph Hellwig for his patient tutelage while I stumbled about.

The Symbios Logic 53c500 chip was used in the “newer” (circa 1997) version of the New Media Bus Toaster PCMCIA SCSI controller. Presumably there are other products using this chip, but I’ve never laid eyes (much less hands) on one.

Through the years, there have been a number of downloads of the pcmcia-cs version of this driver, and I guess it worked for those users. It worked for Tom Corner, and it works for me. Your mileage will probably vary.

Bob Tracy (rct@frus.com)