[ltp] [FYI] Enabling full SATA II speed on T61/X61 ThinkPads

[Cowyn Li]

Hey guys,

in case you are involved and haven't been aware of this, please check it
out at:
  <http://forum.notebookreview.com/6501443-post75.html>

I'v just patched the BIOS on my T61, here's a diff of simple speed test:
{{{
$ diff -u {before,after}.speed
--- before.speed        2010-07-24 11:27:52.000000000 +0800
+++ after.speed 2010-07-24 11:49:14.000000000 +0800
@@ -4,10 +4,10 @@
 $ sudo hdparm -tT /dev/sda
 
 /dev/sda:
- Timing cached reads:   12060 MB in  1.99 seconds = 6056.01 MB/sec
- Timing buffered disk reads:  236 MB in  3.02 seconds =  78.17 MB/sec
+ Timing cached reads:   12848 MB in  1.99 seconds = 6453.72 MB/sec
+ Timing buffered disk reads:  236 MB in  3.00 seconds =  78.55 MB/sec
 $ dd if=/dev/zero of=/tmp/output bs=8k count=256k
 262144+0 records in
 262144+0 records out
-2147483648 bytes (2.1 GB) copied, 23.389 s, 91.8 MB/s
+2147483648 bytes (2.1 GB) copied, 18.7319 s, 115 MB/s
 $ 
$
}}}

BTW: 
a. I'm using a WDC WD5000BEVT HDD, and now considering for a SSD.
b. A table of the modified bios and requests info is at:
  <http://forum.notebookreview.com/6508490-post97.html>
-- 
Rgds,
Cowyn.