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Intel® ICH SATA Controller Basic Attributes
3.3
Host Controller Configurations
The SATA host controller can function independently of, or in conjunction with the parallel ATA
(P-ATA) host controller. The ICH5 can support a maximum of six ATA devices: four parallel
ATA device plus two serial ATA devices.
The flexibility and software transparency of the SATA host controller presents an interesting
problem for older operating systems that do not comprehend or support the native mode of
operation (i.e., the ports/channels on both controller's could be configured to use legacy resources,
which would result in hardware resource conflicts). To prevent this problem, ICH5 supports
multiple SATA and P-ATA device configurations: compatible and enhanced. These configurations
are discussed on the next section.
12
SATA Programmer's Reference Manual
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