Western Digital WD15NPVX Technical Reference Manual page 10

Description and Features WD Green MB500M-6Gb
Active LED Status — These drives support external LED requirements. It provides an activity
LED output which is ON during command execution and OFF otherwise.
Staggered Spin-Up — Native SATA feature that allows the system to control whether the drive
will spin up immediately or wait until the interface is fully ready.
CacheFlow™ —WD's unique, multi-generation caching algorithm evaluates the way data is read
from and written to the drive and adapts "on-the-fly" to the optimum read and write caching
methods. CacheFlow minimizes disk seek operations and overheads due to rotational latency.
CacheFlow supports sequential and random write cache. With write cache and other CacheFlow
features, the user can cache both read and write data. The cache can hold multiple writes and
collectively write them to the hard drive.
48-bit Logical Block Addressing (LBA) — WD SATA drives support both 48-bit and 28-bit
LBA and CHS-based addressing. LBA is included in advanced BIOS and operating system device
drivers and ensures high capacity disk integration.
Power Management — WD SATA drives support the ATA and Serial ATA power management
command set, allowing the host to reduce the power consumption of the drive by issuing a variety
of power management commands.
Automatic Defect Retirement — If the WD SATA drive detects a defective sector while reading,
writing, or performing offline data collection, it automatically relocates the sector without end-
user intervention.
Self-Monitoring, Analysis, and Reporting Technology (S.M.A.R.T.) — S.M.A.R.T. enables a
drive's internal status to be monitored through diagnostic commands at the host level and during
offline activities. S.M.A.R.T. devices employ data analysis algorithms that are used to predict the
likelihood of some near-term degradation or fault conditions. When used with a S.M.A.R.T.
application, the drive can alert the host system of a negative reliability status condition. The host
system can then warn the user of the impending risk of data loss and recommend an appropriate
action.
ATA Security — WD SATA drives support the ATA Security Mode Feature set. The ATA
Security Mode feature set allows the user to create a device lock password that prevents
unauthorized hard disk access even if the drive is removed from the host computer. The correct
password must be supplied to the hard drive in order to access user data. Both the User and
Master Password features are supported, along with the High and Maximum security modes. The
Master Password Revision code is also supported.
2 RELEASED 5/2/13 (WD CONFIDENTIAL) 2679-771422-A00