TYAN TOMCAT I7221 User Manual page 46

Tomcat i7221 S5150
Microsoft recommends that WinNT 4.0 users without Service Pack 2
disable IDE HDD Block Mode as it causes data corruption.
On-Chip Primary/Secondary PCI IDE
IDE hard drive controllers can support up to two separate hard drives. These drives have a
master/slave relationship that is determined by the cabling configuration used to attach them
to the controller. Your system supports two IDE controllers-- a primary and a secondary-- so,
up to four separate hard disks can be installed.
PIO means Programmed Input/Output. Rather than have the BIOS issue a series of
commands to effect a transfer to or from the disk drive, PIO allows the BIOS to tell the
controller what it wants and then let the controller and the CPU perform the complete task by
themselves. This is simpler and more efficient (and faster).
Your system includes two built-in IDE controllers, both of which operate on the PCI bus. This
setup item allows you either to enable or disable the primary controller. You might choose to
disable the controller if you were to add a higher performance or specialized controller.
Enabled / Disabled
Primary / Secondary Master / Slave PIO
The four IDE PIO (Programmed Input / Output) fields let you set a PIO mode (0-4) for each of
the four IDE devices that the onboard IDE interface supports. Modes 0 through 4 provide
successively increased performance. In Auto mode, the system automatically determines the
best mode for each device.
Auto / Mode 0 ~ Mode 4
Primary / Secondary Master / Slave UDMA
This option allows you to select the mode of operation for the Ultra DMA/33 implementation.
This is possible only if your IDE hard drive supports UDMA and the operating environment
includes a DMA driver (Windows 95 OSR2 or a third party IDE bus master driver). UDMA
(Ultra DMA) is advanced technology that provides for even faster throughput, up to 33.3 MB/s
in UDMA mode 2 and 66.7 MB/s in UDMA mode 4, twice to four times that of EIDE, for much
lower prices than SCSI. Many new computers come with large UDMA drives and UDMA
interfaces, and it's possible to add a UDMA interface card (such as the Promise Ultra33 or
Ultra66) to an existing system to boost speed, even on older non-UDMA drives. If your hard
drive and your system software both support Ultra D MA/33, select Auto to enable BIOS
support.
Auto / Disabled
On-Chip Serial ATA Setting
These settings enable you to configure the onboard serial ATA options.
SATA Mode
The integrated peripheral controller contains a S-ATA interface with support for two S-ATA
channels. Serial ATA is a point-to-point connection and allows multiple ports to be aggregated
to a single controller typically located either on the motherboard or an add-in RAID card.
Through backplanes and external enclosures, Serial ATA can be deployed in high-capacity
server and networked-storage environments. Serial ATA technology can deliver 1.5 Gbps (150
MB/sec) to each drive within a disk drive array.
This BIOS option sets the SATA Mode to be used. Choices are IDE for a normal SATA hard
disk, RA ID when using an add-in RAID card and AHCI.
AHCI (Advanced Host Controller Interface) d escribes a PCI class device that acts as an
interface between system memory and SATA devices. AHCI host devices (referred to as host
bus adapters, or HBA) may support from 1 to 32 ports. A HBA must support ATA and ATAPI
devices, and must support both the PIO and DMA protocols. The HBA may optionally support
a command list on each port for overhead reduction, and to support SATA command queuing
Note
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Chapter 3: BIOS Setup