Lev said:
There are 4 sockets for connecting SATA drives on my computer’s
matherboard. (There are no sockets for connecting ATA drives there
because this is a relatively new computer.) When you open the Device
Manager (under WinXP), then under IDE ATA / ATAPI controllers you can
see four lines: two are called Primary IDE Channel, the other two -
Secondary IDE Channel. Is that the old terminology? After all there are
no Master and Slave (Primary and Secondary) drives for SATA drives. (The
same terminology - Master and Slave - you can see when the computer
starts and the BIOS displays its information.) And another question: Is
there a one correspondence between sockets on matherboard and channels,
which are shown in the Device Manager? Where can I read about it?
If you need to dump the contents of Device Manager, there is a utility
called DevCon that can do it. The page here, gives easy access to
a version that runs under 32 bit Windows. Finding the 64 bit version,
for usage with more modern Windows, is a chore. The main advantage of
using DevCon, is easy copy/paste - the utility doesn't give any
more info than Device Manager does. It's just easier to copy.
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;Q311272
*******
I have an ICH9, with six SATA ports.
In the BIOS, I have some options for the operating mode of the ports.
If I switch them to AHCI at the current time, WinXP won't boot, so
I can't really do any demonstration/testing of such features. My SATA ports
are set to IDE mode, and run "Native", meaning they appear in the
PCI bus address space. Now, while I had expected six channels to
show up, I see only four related to Intel. Which is a little weird.
As far as I know, all six ports work, and I occasionally use close
to all the SATA cables. In any case, you can see the labeling they use,
which is "Primary_IDE_Channel". When in fact, the 2920 and 2926 are SATA
controllers. The Primary_IDE_Channel is just a label in WinXP, whereas
the BIOS (which is based on ancient standards), might need such labeling
as a crutch for successful operation.
For whatever reason, only four of six channels showed up for my Intel ICH9R.
PCIIDE\IDECHANNEL\4&2B025FD5&0&0
Name: Primary IDE Channel
Hardware ID's:
Intel-2926
Primary_IDE_Channel
*PNP0600
Compatible ID's:
*PNP0600
PCIIDE\IDECHANNEL\4&2B025FD5&0&1
Name: Secondary IDE Channel
Hardware ID's:
Intel-2926
Secondary_IDE_Channel
*PNP0600
Compatible ID's:
*PNP0600
PCIIDE\IDECHANNEL\4&C98DF0A&0&0
Name: Primary IDE Channel
Hardware ID's:
Intel-2920
Primary_IDE_Channel
*PNP0600
Compatible ID's:
*PNP0600
PCIIDE\IDECHANNEL\4&C98DF0A&0&1
Name: Secondary IDE Channel
Hardware ID's:
Intel-2920
Secondary_IDE_Channel
*PNP0600
Compatible ID's:
*PNP0600
I think this is my Jmicron chip. These would be for up to
two disks on an actual IDE ribbon cable. Currently one
disk is connected to this.
PCIIDE\IDECHANNEL\5&15F80DBE&0&0
Name: Primary IDE Channel
Hardware ID's:
197b-2368
Primary_IDE_Channel
*PNP0600
Compatible ID's:
*PNP0600
PCIIDE\IDECHANNEL\5&15F80DBE&0&1
Name: Secondary IDE Channel
Hardware ID's:
197b-2368
Secondary_IDE_Channel
*PNP0600
Compatible ID's:
*PNP0600
*******
The SATA controllers are here. These are also in the "IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers"
section of device manager. They are split into a four port and a two port,
in case the BIOS mode is set to "Compatible". Perhaps in that case, the four
port appears like two ribbon cables, to an older OS like Win98. When in
"Enhanced" mode, the distinction between these two isn't that important.
On some chipsets, there are differences in device support between these
things, such that optical drive booting doesn't work on one of them.
I'm not aware of any problem like that with ICH9/ICH9R. Some older
chipsets from other manufacturers, treated their two controllers
differently.
PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_2920&SUBSYS_82771043&REV_02\3&11583659&0&FA
Name: Intel(R) ICH9R/DO/DH 4 port Serial ATA Storage Controller 1 - 2920
Hardware ID's:
PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_2920&SUBSYS_82771043&REV_02
PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_2920&SUBSYS_82771043
PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_2920&CC_01018F
PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_2920&CC_0101
Compatible ID's:
PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_2920&REV_02
PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_2920
PCI\VEN_8086&CC_01018F
PCI\VEN_8086&CC_0101
PCI\VEN_8086
PCI\CC_01018F
PCI\CC_0101
PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_2926&SUBSYS_82771043&REV_02\3&11583659&0&FD
Name: Intel(R) ICH9 Family 2 port Serial ATA Storage Controller 2 - 2926
Hardware ID's:
PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_2926&SUBSYS_82771043&REV_02
PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_2926&SUBSYS_82771043
PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_2926&CC_010185
PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_2926&CC_0101
Compatible ID's:
PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_2926&REV_02
PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_2926
PCI\VEN_8086&CC_010185
PCI\VEN_8086&CC_0101
PCI\VEN_8086
PCI\CC_010185
PCI\CC_0101
********
The above two sections of DevCon output, correspond to this
Device Manager output (edited for readability). What's interesting
to me at least, is two ports from the 2920 are missing, in terms
of defining channels. I'd have to go into the BIOS, to review
the settings again. As far as I know, all the SATA ports work.
I'd have to shut down and add another disk, to see if any
additional ones show up.
IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers
Intel ICH9 Family 2 port Serial ATA Storage Controller 2926
Intel ICH9R 4 port Serial ATA Storage Controller 2920
Primary IDE Channel <--- Intel 2926
Primary IDE Channel <--- Intel 2920
Primary IDE Channel <--- Jmicron 2368
Secondary IDE Channel <--- Intel 2926
Secondary IDE Channel <--- Intel 2920
Secondary IDE Channel <--- Jmicron 2368
Standard Dual Channel PCI IDE Controller <--- JMicron 2368 controller
The description (Master/Slave) and capabilities (UDMA 5) are
fake. When transferring data, there is no Master/Slave on
SATA. There is Port Multiplexing available, with FIS switching,
but since nobody I know owns a Port Multiplexer, there really
isn't any Device Manager info to look at for that case. A
SATA port can host up to 15 drives or so, with the proper
downstream hardware. (Silicon Image makes a chip that support
five hard drives that way.) As far as I know, SAS can have a large
fanout like that as well. Most conventional SATA style usage,
is one disk per cable. That's what most people are familiar with.
The transfer rate, goes as fast as the cable will allow (about
500MB/sec+ on SATA III), so the UDMA5 labeling is false.
*******
The best document on the subject, which was written when SATA
was introduced for an Intel chipset, is here. This will help
explain some of the modes they use. And how Intel arranged
"Compatible" mode so that Win98 would boot. Page 13
is the best part. Intel arranged things, so the hardware
could either be accessed in IOSpace, or in PCI space. And
an older OS would be looking for the disks in the IOSpace
(i.e. if you expected OS installation to work from the CD).
(Previously listed as doc 252671, for ICH5 era.)
http://www.intel.com/content/dam/doc/manual/82801eb-82801er-serial-ata-manual.pdf
HTH,
Paul