PCI IDE Controller: Difference between revisions

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IDE is a keyword which refers to the electrical specification of the cables which connect ATA drives (like hard drives) to another device. The drives use the ATA (Advanced Technology Attachment) interface. An IDE cable also can terminate at an IDE card connected to PCI.
IDE is a keyword which refers to the electrical specification of the cables which connect ATA drives (like hard drives) to another device. The drives use the ATA (Advanced Technology Attachment) interface. An IDE cable also can terminate at an IDE card connected to PCI.


[[ATAPI]] is an extension to ATA (recently renamed to PATA) which adds support for the SCSI command set
[[ATAPI]] is an extension to ATA (recently renamed to PATA) which adds support for the SCSI command set.


===Parallel/Serial ATA/ATAPI===
===Parallel/Serial ATA/ATAPI===
IDE can connect up to 4 drives. Each drive may be:
IDE can connect up to 4 drives. Each drive can be one of the following:


* Parallel ATA: Commonly used in hard drives.
* ATA (Serial): Used for most modern hard drives.
* Parallel ATAPI: Commonly used in optical drives.
* ATA (Parallel): Commonly used for hard drives.
* Serial ATA: Used in most modern hard drives.
* ATAPI (Serial): Used for most modern optical drives.
* Serial ATAPI: Used in most modern optical drives.
* ATAPI (Parallel): Commonly used for optical drives.


Accessing an ATA/PATA drive works the same way as accessing a SATA drive. This also implicitly states that accessing a PATAPI ODD is the same as accessing a SATAPI ODD. An IDE driver does not need to know whether a drive is parallel or serial, it only has to know whether it's using ATA or ATAPI.
The Way of accessing ATA Drives is one, means that the way of accessing PATA HDDs is the same of SATA HDDs. also the way of accessing PATAPI ODDs is the same of SATAPI ODDs.
The IDE device driver doesn't need to know if a drive is Parallel or Serial, only if it is ATA or ATAPI.


===IDE Interface===
===IDE Interface===
[[Image:Ide-motherboard-connectors.jpg|thumb|IDE on motherboard|256px|The white and green ports are the Parallel IDE ports on the motherboard.]]
[[Image:Ide-motherboard-connectors.jpg|thumb|IDE on motherboard|256px|The white and green ports are the Parallel IDE ports on the motherboard.]]
[[Image:PATA-Cable.jpg|thumb|PATA Cable|256px|PATA cable which connects to to a Parallel IDE port.]]
[[Image:PATA-Cable.jpg|thumb|PATA Cable|256px|PATA cable which connects to a Parallel IDE port.]]
[[Image:SATA-motherboard.jpg|thumb|SATA Ports|256px|4 Serial IDE ports on the motherboard.]]
[[Image:SATA-motherboard.jpg|thumb|SATA Ports|256px|4 Serial IDE ports on the motherboard.]]
[[Image:SATA-Cable.gif|thumb|SATA Cable|256px|SATA cable which connects to a SATA port.]]
[[Image:SATA-Cable.gif|thumb|SATA Cable|256px|SATA cable which connects to a SATA port.]]


If you open your case and look at the mother board, you will see a port or two like these in the picture to the right.
If you open your case up and take a look at your motherboard, you will most likely see one or two (or possibly more) of the slots that can be seen in the picture to the right.


The white and green ports are IDE ports, also known as channels. In this example there are both primary and secondary IDE channels which only PATA can be connected to; this means that it only supports PATA/PATAPI drives.
The white and green ports are IDE ports, also known as ''channels''. In this example there are both primary and secondary IDE channels which only PATA can be connected to; this means that it only supports PATA/PATAPI drives.

Each port can have a PATA cable connected to it (see the image on the right). One master drive, or two drives (master and slave), can be connected to one PATA cable. So that leaves us with the following possibilities:


Each port can have a PATA cable connected to it (see photo on right). One master drive, or two drives (master and slave) can be connected to one PATA cable.
So we can have:
* Primary Master Drive.
* Primary Master Drive.
* Primary Slave Drive.
* Primary Slave Drive.
* Secondary Master Drive.
* Secondary Master Drive.
* Secondary Slave Drive.
* Secondary Slave Drive.

Each drive may be PATA or PATAPI.
Each drive can be either PATA or PATAPI.


===Serial IDE===
===Serial IDE===
Almost every modern motherboard has a Serial IDE channel which allows [[SATA]] and SATAPI Drives to be connected to it.
Almost every modern motherboard has a Serial IDE channel which allows [[SATA]] and SATAPI Drives to be connected to it. There are 4 Serial IDE Ports (you can see these in the photo to the right). Each port is connected to a drive with a SATA Cable. Basically (looking at the pictures), you can only have one drive connected to the Serial IDE port. Each pair of ports (every 2 ports) form one channel.

There are four Serial IDE Ports; these appear in the photo to the right. Each port is connected to a drive with a Serial ATA (SATA) Cable.
Serial IDE also has a few possibilities:
So from the pictures we can understand that only one drive can be connected to Serial IDE Port, each two ports make a channel, and also Serial IDE has:


* Primary Master, also called SATA1.
* Primary Master, also called SATA1.