Intel Desktop Board D945GRW KD945GRWLKPAK10 User Manual

Product codes
KD945GRWLKPAK10
Page of 90
Intel Desktop Board D945GRW Technical Product Specification 
24 
 
1.6.3 IDE 
Support 
The board provides three IDE interface connectors: 
•  One parallel ATA IDE connector that supports two devices 
•  Two serial ATA IDE connectors that support one device per connector 
1.6.3.1  Parallel ATE IDE Interface 
The ICH7’s Parallel ATA IDE controller has one bus-mastering Parallel ATA IDE interface.  The 
Parallel ATA IDE interface supports the following modes: 
•  Programmed I/O (PIO):  processor controls data transfer. 
•  8237-style DMA:  DMA offloads the processor, supporting transfer rates of up to 16 MB/sec. 
•  Ultra DMA:  DMA protocol on IDE bus supporting host and target throttling and transfer rates 
of up to 33 MB/sec. 
•  ATA-66:  DMA protocol on IDE bus supporting host and target throttling and transfer rates of 
up to 66 MB/sec.  ATA-66 protocol is similar to Ultra DMA and is device driver compatible. 
•  ATA-100:  DMA protocol on IDE bus allows host and target throttling.  The ICH7’s ATA-100 
logic can achieve read transfer rates up to 100 MB/sec and write transfer rates up to 88 MB/sec.   
 
NOTE 
ATA-66 and ATA-100 are faster timings and require a specialized cable to reduce reflections, 
noise, and inductive coupling. 
The Parallel ATA IDE interface also supports ATAPI devices (such as CD-ROM drives) and ATA 
devices using the transfer modes. 
The BIOS supports Logical Block Addressing (LBA) and Extended Cylinder Head Sector (ECHS) 
translation modes.  The drive reports the transfer rate and translation mode to the BIOS.  
 
 
For information about  
Refer to 
The location of the Parallel ATA IDE connector 
1.6.3.2  Serial ATA Interfaces 
The ICH7’s Serial ATA controller offers two independent Serial ATA ports with a theoretical 
maximum transfer rate of 3 Gbits/sec per port.  One device can be installed on each port for a 
maximum of two Serial ATA devices.  A point-to-point interface is used for host to device 
connections, unlike Parallel ATA IDE which supports a master/slave configuration and two devices 
per channel.   
For compatibility, the underlying Serial ATA functionality is transparent to the operating system.  
The Serial ATA controller can operate in both legacy and native modes.  In legacy mode, standard 
IDE I/O and IRQ resources are assigned (IRQ 14 and 15).  In Native mode, standard PCI 
Conventional bus resource steering is used.  Native mode is the preferred mode for configurations 
using the Windows* XP and Windows 2000 operating systems.