From owner-freebsd-hardware Thu Sep 26 08:14:18 1996 Return-Path: owner-hardware Received: (from root@localhost) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.7.5/8.7.3) id IAA03387 for hardware-outgoing; Thu, 26 Sep 1996 08:14:18 -0700 (PDT) Received: from agora.rdrop.com (root@agora.rdrop.com [199.2.210.241]) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.7.5/8.7.3) with SMTP id IAA03358 for ; Thu, 26 Sep 1996 08:14:11 -0700 (PDT) Received: from fly.HiWAAY.net by agora.rdrop.com with smtp (Smail3.1.29.1 #17) id m0v6I8e-00091tC; Thu, 26 Sep 96 08:14 PDT Received: from localhost by fly.HiWAAY.net; (8.7.5/1.1.8.2/21Sep95-1003PM) id KAA01006; Thu, 26 Sep 1996 10:10:09 -0500 (CDT) Date: Thu, 26 Sep 1996 10:10:07 -0500 (CDT) From: Steve Price To: Ernest Hua cc: hardware@FreeBSD.org Subject: Re: more than 2 IDE controllers? In-Reply-To: <199609261327.GAA07996@server1.chromatic.com> Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Sender: owner-hardware@FreeBSD.org X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Precedence: bulk On Thu, 26 Sep 1996, Ernest Hua wrote: # # Ok. I got two answers .. "Yes" and "No". # # Does anyone have a definitive explanation for WHY the answer # is "Yes" or "No"? # # Please post your answer to the list. # # Thanks! # # Ern # Let me clarify my answer to you. I don't know of any technological miracles that have to be performed to have >2 controllers. However, I have not seen it done. I do know that up to ATA-3 the spec only provides for two controllers (one master and one slave). In light of this, most (if not all) BIOSs only know about these two locations. I know that specs are sometimes fuzzy, but I think the section that states that there are only two STANDARD locations, is fairly clear. In conforming to the spec, most IDE controller cards are designed to live in one of these two standard places. To get a definitive answer, try posting your question to ata@dt.wdc.com. The people that read that list are ATA gurus/designers. So if anybody knows, they will. Steve