- PIO (Programmed Input/Output)
a method of moving data by sending control data through the CPU. There are different modes of PIO which specify the transfer rate, with mode 0 at 3.3 MBps up to mode 4 at 16.6 MBps.
- UDMA (Ultra Direct Memory Access)
a protocol for transferring data directly between a hard drive through the bus to and from a computer's main memory without involving the CPU. There are different modes of UDMA which specify the transfer rate, with mode 0 at 16 MBps up to mode 6 at 133 MBps.
To the best of our knowledge, any PCI IDE board using the Silicon Image SiI0680 chipset is suitable, and there are several readily available. Two cards used by menbers of Amiga Auckland are the ST Lab Ultra ATA IDE Controller Card, and the XSonic Ultra ATA IDE Controller Card.
ST Lab Ultra ATA IDE Controller Card
This card uses the Silicon ImageSiI0680ACL144 chip, SiI680-IDE for short, and costs around NZ$66 incl GST. It comes with two 440mm 80 wire ribbon cables, a CD containing Drivers and Utility programs and a multi-page User Manual exclusively for the Microsoft environment. It has two 40 pin ATA-133 sockets (the Primary channel is labelled J3 and coloured red, and the Secondary channel is labelled J5 and coloured blue).
Specifications
The specifications for the card are:
- Chipset: Silicon Image SiI0680
- Compliant with ATA/ATAPI-6 specifications
- Compliant with PCI Plug & Play
- Data Transfer Rate: max. IDE/ATA data transfer rate of 133MB/sec
- Bus: PCI 2.2 32-bit, 33MHz
- Features Virtual DMA: Bus master transfer on the PCI Bus and PIO transfer on the ATA bus
- Two independent Ultra ATA channels with 256 Bytes FIFO per channel
- Supports up to four IDE/ATA devices (coexists with other IDE and SCSI controllers)
- Fully backwards compatible with Ultra ATA/100, Ultra ATA/66, EIDE/Fast ATA-2, IDE and ATAPI devices
- Supports Ultra and Multi-Word DMA timing modes
- Enhanced data integrity of transferred data with CRC (Cyclical Redundancy Check)protection and verification
- Supports Windows 98/98SE/ME/2000/NT 4.0/XP
- Connectors: - 2 x Ultra ATA 133 IDE connectors
- Maximum cable length at 133MB/sec: 18 inches (460mm)
This card uses the Silicon ImageSiI0680ACL144 chip, SiI680-IDE for short, and costs around NZ$55 incl GST. It comes with one 440mm 80 wire ribbon cable, a mini 40mm CD containing Drivers and Utility programs and a 6 page User Manual exclusively for the Microsoft environment. It has two 40 pin ATA-133 sockets (the Primary channel is labelled D1 and coloured blue, and the Secondary channel is labelled D2 and coloured white).
Specifications
The specifications for the card are:
- Silicon Image SiI680 Ultra ATA/133 IDE controller chipset
- Compliant with UDMA6 ATA/133 specification
- Compliant with ATA/ATAPI-6 specification
- Compliant with Programming Interface for Bus Master IDE Controller Rev 1.0
- Compliant with PCI specification Version 2.2
- Supports maximum data transfer rate of 133MB/sec
- Supports 48-bit sector addressing (maximum HD drive size is 131,032 Terrabytes
- Supports Ultra and Multi-Word DMA timing modes.
- PCI "Plug & Play" compatibility
- Two independent Ultra ATA channels with 256 byte buffer per channel
- Connect up to four IDE/ATA devices (Coexists with other on-board IDE controllers)
- Fully backwards compatible with Ultra ATA/100, Ultra ATA/66, Ultra ATA/33, EIDE/Fast ATA-2, IDE and ATAPI devices.
- Automatic performance tuning for each device attached.
- Enhanced data integrity of transferred data with CRC (Cyclical Redundancy Check) protection and verification
Disclaimer: Amiga Auckland have prepared the above information for the use of its members based on our experiences and as such is subject to revision at any time. Amiga Auckland cannot guarantee any of the information and cannot be held accountable for any issues that may result from using it.