System firmware
The system firmware is responsible for configuring several key parameters on each PCI adapter as well as configuring options in the I/O chips on the various I/O and PCI buses in the system.
In some cases, the firmware sets parameters unique to specific adapters, for example the PCI Latency Timer and Cache Line Size, and for PCI-X adapters, the Maximum Memory Read Byte Count (MMRBC) values. These parameters are key to obtaining good performance from the adapters. If these parameters are not properly set because of down-level firmware, it will be impossible to achieve optimal performance by software tuning alone. Ensure that you update the firmware on older systems before adding new adapters to the system.
You can see both the platform and system firmware levels with the lscfg -vp|grep
-p " ROM" command, as in the following example:
lscfg -vp|grep -p " ROM"
...lines omitted...
System Firmware:
ROM Level (alterable).......M2P030828
Version.....................RS6K
System Info Specific.(YL)...U0.1-P1/Y1
Physical Location: U0.1-P1/Y1
SPCN firmware:
ROM Level (alterable).......0000CMD02252
Version.....................RS6K
System Info Specific.(YL)...U0.1-P1/Y3
Physical Location: U0.1-P1/Y3
SPCN firmware:
ROM Level (alterable).......0000CMD02252
Version.....................RS6K
System Info Specific.(YL)...U0.2-P1/Y3
Physical Location: U0.2-P1/Y3
Platform Firmware:
ROM Level (alterable).......MM030829
Version.....................RS6K
System Info Specific.(YL)...U0.1-P1/Y2
Physical Location: U0.1-P1/Y2