Problem with ICH7 controller in SC440?

I see this during boot (debian sarge) of a new SC440. It appears to me that while ata_piix is probing the hard drives, it's finding a problem with the second controller. The drive does eventually mount, however, and data write and read to it. So what is the meaning of this unresponding port? Also, why do both controllers get assigned to the same IRQ? Or is there actually a single controller, and if so, is that why I'm having trouble getting software RAID1 working on this box?

Thanks in advance for any help!

ata_piix 0000:00:1f.2: version 2.00ac6
ata_piix 0000:00:1f.2: MAP [ P0 P2 P1 P3 ]
ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:00:1f.2 -> GSI 20 (level, low) -> IRQ 18
PCI: Setting latency timer of device 0000:00:1f.2 to 64
ata1: SATA max UDMA/133 cmd 0xFE00 ctl 0xFE12 bmdma 0xFEC0 irq 18
ata2: SATA max UDMA/133 cmd 0xFE20 ctl 0xFE32 bmdma 0xFEC8 irq 18
scsi0 : ata_piix
ata1.00: ATA-7, max UDMA/133, 156250000 sectors: LBA48 NCQ (depth 0/32)
ata1.00: ata1: dev 0 multi count 8
ata1.01: ATA-7, max UDMA/133, 156250000 sectors: LBA48 NCQ (depth 0/32)
ata1.01: ata1: dev 1 multi count 8
ata1.00: configured for UDMA/133
ata1.01: configured for UDMA/133
scsi1 : ata_piix
ata2: port is slow to respond, please be patient (Status 0xff)
ata2: port failed to respond (30 secs, Status 0xff)
ata2: SRST failed (status 0xFF)
ata2: SRST failed (err_mask=0x100)
ata2: softreset failed, retrying in 5 secs
ata2: SRST failed (status 0xFF)
ata2: SRST failed (err_mask=0x100)
ata2: softreset failed, retrying in 5 secs
ata2: SRST failed (status 0xFF)
ata2: SRST failed (err_mask=0x100)
ata2: reset failed, giving up
scsi 0:0:0:0: Direct-Access ATA WDC WD800JD-75MS 10.0 PQ: 0
ANSI: 5
SCSI device sda: 156250000 512-byte hdwr sectors (80000 MB)
sda: Write Protect is off
sda: Mode Sense: 00 3a 00 00
SCSI device sda: drive cache: write back
SCSI device sda: 156250000 512-byte hdwr sectors (80000 MB)
sda: Write Protect is off
sda: Mode Sense: 00 3a 00 00
SCSI device sda: drive cache: write back
sda: sda1 sda2 sda3 sda5 sda6 sda7 sda8 >
sd 0:0:0:0: Attached scsi disk sda
scsi 0:0:1:0: Direct-Access ATA WDC WD800JD-75MS 10.0 PQ: 0
ANSI: 5
SCSI device sdb: 156250000 512-byte hdwr sectors (80000 MB)
sdb: Write Protect is off
sdb: Mode Sense: 00 3a 00 00
SCSI device sdb: drive cache: write back
SCSI device sdb: 156250000 512-byte hdwr sectors (80000 MB)
sdb: Write Protect is off
sdb: Mode Sense: 00 3a 00 00
SCSI device sdb: drive cache: write back
sdb: sdb1
sd 0:0:1:0: Attached scsi disk sdb