Hardware Reference
In-Depth Information
• Added ATA Security mode, allowing password protection for device access
• Provided recommendations for source and receiver bus termination to solve noise issues at
higher transfer speeds
ATA-3 built on ATA-2, adding improved reliability, especially of the faster PIO mode 4 transfers;
however, ATA-3 did not define faster modes. ATA-3 did add a simple password-based security
scheme, more sophisticated power management, and S.M.A.R.T. This enables a drive to keep track of
problems that might result in a failure and thus avoid data loss. S.M.A.R.T. is a reliability prediction
technology that IBM initially developed.
Work on ATA-3 began in 1995, and the standard was finished and officially published in 1997 as
“ANSI X3.298-1997, AT Attachment 3 Interface.” ATA-3 was officially withdrawn in 2002.
ATA/ATAPI-4 (ATA with Packet Interface Extension-4)
ATA-4 included several important additions to the standard. It included the Packet Command feature
known as the
AT Attachment Packet Interface
(ATAPI), which allowed devices such as CD-ROM
and CD-RW drives, LS-120 SuperDisk floppy drives, Zip drives, tape drives, and other types of
storage devices to be attached through a common interface. Until ATA-4 came out, ATAPI was a
separately published standard. ATA-4 also added the 33MB per second (MBps) transfer mode
known as Ultra-DMA or Ultra-ATA. ATA-4 is backward compatible with ATA-3 and earlier
definitions of the ATAPI.
Work on ATA-4 began in 1996, and the standard was finished and officially published in 1998 as
“ANSI NCITS 317-1998, AT Attachment - 4 with Packet Interface Extension.” ATA-4 was officially
withdrawn in 2012.
The major revisions added in ATA-4 were as follows:
• Ultra-DMA (UDMA)or Ultra-ATA/33) transfer modes up to Mode 2, which is 33MBps (called
UDMA/33 or Ultra-ATA/33)
• Integral ATAPI support
• Advanced power management support
• An optional 80-conductor, 40-pin cable defined for improved noise resistance
• Host protected area (HPA) support
• Compact Flash Adapter (CFA) support
• Enhanced BIOS support for drives over 9.4ZB (zettabytes or trillion gigabytes) in size (even
though ATA was still limited to 136.9GB)
The speed and level of ATA support in your system is mainly dictated by your motherboard chipset.
Most motherboard chipsets come with a component called either a South Bridge or an I/O Controller
Hub that provides the ATA interface (as well as other functions) in the system. Check the
specifications for your motherboard or chipset to see whether yours supports the faster ATA/33,
ATA/66, ATA/100, or ATA/133 mode. One indication is to enter the BIOS Setup, put the hard disk
on manual parameter settings (user defined), and see which (if any) Ultra-DMA modes are listed.
Most boards built in 1998 support ATA/33. In 2000 they began to support ATA/66, and by late 2000
most started supporting ATA/100. ATA/133 support became widespread in mid-2002.
ATA-4 made ATAPI support a full part of the ATA standard; therefore, ATAPI was no longer an