ata(4)

NAME

ata, ar, acd, ad, afd, ast - generic ATA/ATAPI disk con

troller driver

SYNOPSIS

For ISA based ATA/ATAPI support:
device isa
device ata
In /boot/device.hints:
hint.ata.0.at="isa"
hint.ata.0.port="0x1f0"
hint.ata.0.irq="14"
hint.ata.1.at="isa"
hint.ata.1.port="0x170"
hint.ata.1.irq="15"
For PC98 based ATA/ATAPI support:
device isa
device ata
In /boot/device.hints:
hint.atacbus.0.at="isa"
hint.atacbus.0.port="0x640"
hint.atacbus.0.irq="9"
For PCI based ATA/ATAPI support:
device pci
device ata
To support ATA compliant disk drives:
device atadisk
To support ATA software RAID's:
device ataraid
To support ATAPI CDROM, DVD and CD/DVD burner drives:
device atapicd
To support ATAPI floppy drives:
device atapifd
To support ATAPI tape drives:
device atapist
The following tunables are settable from the loader:
hw.ata.ata_dma
set to 1 for DMA access, 0 for PIO (default is DMA).
hw.ata.atapi_dma
set to 1 for DMA access, 0 for PIO (default is DMA).
hw.ata.wc
set  to  1 to enable Write Caching, 0 to disable (default is
enabled).
WARNING: can cause data loss on power failures and  crashes.

DESCRIPTION

The ata driver provides access to ATA (IDE) and SerialATA

disk drives,
ATAPI CDROM/DVD drives, ZIP/LS120 ATAPI drives and ATAPI

tape drives connected to controllers according to the ATA/ATAPI standards.

The currently supported ATA/SATA controller chips are:

Acard: ATP850P, ATP860A, ATP860R, ATP865A, ATP865R.
ALI: M5229, M5281, M5287, M5289.
AMD: AMD756, AMD766, AMD768, AMD8111.
ATI: IXP200, IXP300, IXP400.
CMD: CMD646, CMD646U2, CMD648, CMD649.
Cypress: Cypress 82C693.
Cyrix: Cyrix 5530.
HighPoint: HPT302, HPT366, HPT368, HPT370, HPT371,

HPT372, HPT372N,

HPT374.

Intel: 6300ESB, 31244, PIIX, PIIX3, PIIX4, ICH,

ICH0, ICH2,

ICH3, ICH4, ICH5, ICH6, ICH7.

ITE: IT8211F, IT8212F.
JMicron: JMB360, JMB361, JMB363, JMB365, JMB366.
Marvell 88SX5040, 88SX5041, 88SX5080, 88SX5081,

88SX6041,

88SX6081.

National: SC1100.
nVidia: nForce, nForce2, nForce2 MCP, nForce3,

nForce3 MCP,

nForce3 Pro, nForce4.

Promise: PDC20246, PDC20262, PDC20263, PDC20265,

PDC20267,

PDC20268, PDC20269, PDC20270, PDC20271,

PDC20275,
PDC20276, PDC20277, PDC20318, PDC20319,

PDC20371,
PDC20375, PDC20376, PDC20377, PDC20378,

PDC20379,
PDC20571, PDC20575, PDC20579, PDC20580,

PDC20617,
PDC20618, PDC20619, PDC20620, PDC20621,

PDC20622,
PDC40518, PDC40519, PDC40718, PDC40719.

ServerWorks: ROSB4, CSB5, CSB6.
Silicon Image: SiI0680, SiI3112, SiI3114, SiI3512.
SiS: SIS180, SIS181, SIS182, SIS5513, SIS530,

SIS540, SIS550,

SIS620, SIS630, SIS630S, SIS633, SIS635,

SIS730, SIS733,
SIS735, SIS745, SIS961, SIS962, SIS963,

SIS964, SIS965.

VIA: VT6410, VT6420, VT6421, VT82C586, VT82C586B,

VT82C596,

VT82C596B, VT82C686, VT82C686A, VT82C686B,

VT8231,
VT8233, VT8233A, VT8233C, VT8235, VT8237,

VT8251.

Unknown ATA chipsets are supported in PIO modes, and if the

standard busmaster DMA registers are present and contain valid setup,

DMA is also
enabled, although the max mode is limited to UDMA33, as it

is not known
what the chipset can do and how to program it.

The ata driver can change the transfer mode and various oth

er parameters
when the system is up and running. See atacontrol(8).

The ata driver sets the maximum transfer mode supported by

the hardware
as default. However the ata driver sometimes warns: ``DMA

limited to
UDMA33, non-ATA66 cable or device''. This means that the

ata driver has
detected that the required 80 conductor cable is not present

or could not
be detected properly, or that one of the devices on the

channel only
accepts up to UDMA2/ATA33.

Unknown ATAPI devices are initialized to DMA mode if the

hw.ata.atapi_dma
tunable is set to 1 and they support at least UDMA33 trans

fers. Otherwise they are set to PIO mode because severe DMA problems

are common even
if the device capabilities indicate support. You can always

try to set
DMA mode on an ATAPI device using atacontrol(8), but be

aware that your
hardware might not support it and can potentially hang the

entire system
causing data loss.

FILES

/dev/ad* ATA disk device nodes
/dev/ar* ATA RAID device nodes
/dev/acd* ATAPI CD-ROM device nodes
/dev/afd* ATAPI floppy drive device nodes
/dev/ast* ATAPI tape drive device nodes
/sys/i386/conf/GENERIC sample generic kernel config

file for ata

based systems

NOTES

Please remember that in order to use UDMA4/ATA66 and above

modes you must
use 80 conductor cables. Please assure that ribbon cables

are no longer
than 45cm. In case of rounded ATA cables, the length de

pends on the
quality of the cables. SATA cables can be up to 1m long ac

cording to the
specification.

Static device numbering (enabled with the ATA_STATIC_ID ker

nel option)
reserves a number for each possibly connected disk, even

when not present. This is useful in hotswap scenarios where disks

should always show
up as the same numbered device, and not depend on attach or

der.

SEE ALSO

ataraid(4), atacontrol(8), burncd(8)

HISTORY

The ata driver first appeared in FreeBSD 4.0.

AUTHORS

Soren Schmidt <sos@FreeBSD.org>.

BSD March 16, 2006

BSD