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16.1.7 Terminology Used in this Document
The following is a brief explanation of some terms used in this document:
AHCI — Advanced Host Controller Interface (necessary for implementing newly supported features like
native command queuing). The device supports only this mode of operation, i.e., has no support
for Legacy mode. It also reduces CPU/Software overhead when moving data in and out of the
system memory. Note that system software is responsible to ensure that queued and
non-queued commands are not mixed in the command list.
ATA/ATAPI— Advanced Technology (AT) attachment/ATA packet interface
CF— Compact Flash
Device— External SATA or ATAPI device attached to the SATA controller
DMA— DMA within the ATA controller, not the processor EDMA system
DWORD— DWORD is 32 bits of data.
Command List— Command List is a memory buffer for as much as 32 commands. Each command is
entered in a command slot. This is a required feature when supporting command queuing.
Command Slot— A command slot is a subset of the command list. It is the memory buffer for a single
command. A total of 32 command slots exist.
D2H— D2H is an acronym for "device to HBA" and is mostly used to indicate the direction of the
transmission of FIS which is from device to the HBA (host).
FIS— FIS is an acronym for "Frame Information Structure". A frame is made of a data payload with
computed CRC and a start and end primitives.
H2D— H2D is an acronym for "HBA to device" and is mostly used to indicate the direction of the
transmission of FIS which is from HBA (host) to device.
HBA — HBA is an acronym for "host bus adapter". It is the SATA controller that implements the AHCI
specification to communicate between system memory and Serial ATA devices.
Legacy Mode— This mode of operation makes the user access (application software or driver) to view
the SATA controller in a similar fashion as a PATA controller. The device does not support
Legacy mode of operation but AHCI mode of operation.
OOB — Out of Band. OOB signaling is used for during device detection and when recovering from
power states.
PM — PM is an acronym for 'Port Multiplier". A Port Multiplier allows extending an HBA port connection
capability to connect to multiple SATA Devices, a maximum of 15 Devices. Note that the
operating bandwidth is shared amongst all the Devices when using this type of configuration.
PMP — Port Multiplier Port : A Port of a Port Multiplier (PM).
PORT— Refers to HBA Port mainly, within this document. However, the PORT is also be used to refer
to a port of a PORT Multiplier.
PRD — PRD is an acronym for "physical region descriptor". A PRD table is a data structure used by
DMA engines that comply with the ATA/ATAPI Host Adapters standard. The PRD describes
memory regions to be used as the source or destination of data during DMA transfers. A PRD
table is often referred to as a scatter/gather list.
SATA Controller— Serial ATA controller, also HBA.
System Memory— The memory that is external from the SATA controller but is a memory that is
accessible by the built in SATA controller DMA or the CPU.
SPRUGX9 – 15 April 2011
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Preliminary
© 2011, Texas Instruments Incorporated
Introduction
Serial ATA (SATA) Controller
1567
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