Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id ; Thu, 28 Mar 2002 06:37:56 -0500 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id ; Thu, 28 Mar 2002 06:37:47 -0500 Received: from vaak.stack.nl ([131.155.140.140]:9228 "HELO mailhost.stack.nl") by vger.kernel.org with SMTP id ; Thu, 28 Mar 2002 06:37:37 -0500 Date: Thu, 28 Mar 2002 12:37:36 +0100 (CET) From: Jos Hulzink To: Linux Kernel Mailing List Subject: Re: IDE and hot-swap disk caddies In-Reply-To: <3CA25A1A.31572.2DCF314@localhost> Message-ID: <20020328120105.C89160-100000@toad.stack.nl> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org To get everything clear, regarding the hot-swapping laptops: ATA is the standard that tells how to communicate with a harddisk. You just can stop communicating, easy as it is. Finish the last command like ATA says you to, and the communication is idle. IDE is one implementation of the communication channel. This specific implementation is not designed with hot swappable capabilities in mind. Laptops use their own communication channel. As long as the channel is capable of communicating ATA-compatible, the designer is free in designing this channel. So, designers are free to implement neat tristate buffers, real powerdown modes in their harddisks, etcetera. Usually, to prevent problems, these communication channels present theirselves to the outer world as generic IDE compliant. Maybe a clear example is the Serial-ATA bus (www.serialata.com). This is a serial communication channel for ATA communication. This channel has nothing to do with IDE anymore, but is still completely ATA compliant. The problem is that ATA and IDE were just made for each other, so they are mixed up many times. In fact, the part that is often called the IDE driver, is actually the ATA driver. The IDE driver is the code that sets up your chipset for Ultra-DMA etcetera. Jos - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/