Introduction - Seagate Medalist 1270 Product Manual

Medalist 1270 Product Manual, August 1995

Introduction

This manual describes the functional, mechanical and interface specifi-
cations for the Medalist 1270 hard disc drive. The Medalist 1270 is
referred to throughout this manual by its model number, ST31270A.
The ST31270A is a 1.2-Gbyte drive that features Fast ATA-2 perform-
ance, technology to smooth data flow and power management.
Fast ATA-2 performance means that the drive supports PIO mode 4 and
multiword DMA mode 2 transfer modes and multiple block read/write.
When the host chooses either transfer mode, the drive provides burst-
transfer rates of up to 16.6 Mbytes per second. Multiple block read/write
allows the drive to gather several blocks of data in cache and transfers
them in a single burst.
The drive uses a 256-Kbyte segmented cache and embedded servo
technology to smooth data flow. The 256-Kbyte segmented cache pro-
vides a designated area where blocks of contiguous read or write data
can be staged for transfer in a single burst. The embedded servo allows
for accurate head positioning and eliminates periodic thermal recalibra-
tion for data transfers without interruption.
The drive supports Active, Idle and Standby power-management modes.
Power-saving modes are entered by request of the computer. Standby
mode reduces power consumption to 1 watt (typical) while retaining drive
accessibility. (The power-management and other ATA commands the
drive supports are listed on pages 27 and 28. Commands with specific
applications for the drive are discussed in Section 3.0 on page 25.)
The following is a summary of the drive's features:
Capacity
• 1,282.8 Mbytes formatted
• LBA translation support
• Available software driver that surpasses the 528-Mbyte barrier im-
posed by some BIOSs
• Available software driver that provides expanded 32-bit disk access
support for Windows
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