TYAN TEMPEST I5000XL Manual page 41

Type
Selects the type of device connected to the system.
Options: Auto / CD/DVD / Not Installed / ARMD
Multi-Sector Transfers
This option allows you to specify the number of sectors per block for multiple sector
transfers.
Options: Disabled / 2 Sectors / 4 Sectors / 8 Sectors / 16 Sectors
LBA Mode Control
Enables or disables LBA Mode.
In LBA Mode, instead of referring to a cylinder, head and sector number, each
sector is instead assigned a unique "sector number". In essence, the sectors are
numbered 0, 1, 2, etc. up to (N-1), where N is the number of sectors on the disk.
In order for LBA to work, it must be supported by the BIOS and operating system,
but since it is also a new way of talking to the hard disk, the disk must support it as
well. All newer hard disks do in fact support LBA, and when auto detected by a
BIOS supporting LBA, will be set up to use that mode.
When LBA is turned on, the BIOS will enable geometry translation. This translation
may be done in the same way that it is done in Extended CHS or large mode, or it
may be done using a different algorithm called LBA-assist translation. The
translated geometry is still what is presented to the operating system for use in Int
13h calls. The difference between LBA and ECHS is that when using ECHS the
BIOS translates the parameters used by these calls from the translated geometry to
the drive's logical geometry. With LBA, it translates from the translated geometry
directly into a logical block (sector) number.
LBA has in recent years become the dominant form of hard disk addressing. Since
the 8.4 GB limit of the Int13h interface was reached, it became impossible to
express the geometry of large hard disks using cylinder, head and sector numbers,
translated or not, while remaining below the Int13h limits of 1,024 cylinders, 256
heads and 63 sectors. Therefore, modern drives are no longer specified in terms of
classical geometry, but rather in terms of their total number of user data sectors and
addressed using LBA.
Options: Disabled / Enabled
32 Bit I/O
Enables or disables 32 bit data transfer mode.
Enabling this option causes the PCI hard disk interface controller to bundle together
two 16-bit chunks of data from the drive into a 32-bit group, which is then
transmitted to the processor or memory. This results in a small performance
increase.
Options: Enabled / Disabled
Transfer Mode
These modes determine the speed at which data is transferred to and from the
drive. The Auto option automatically determines the correct transfer rates.
Options: Auto / Standard / Fast PIO 1 / Fast PIO 2 / Fast PIO 3 / Fast PIO 4 / FPIO
3 / DMA 1 / FPIO 4 / DMA 2
41
http://www.tyan.com