Interfacing Peripherals To Computer System or Disk Interfacing Technology

Interfacing
Peripherals to
Computer System
Conceived By-
Shubham Pandey
Department of Electronics Engineering
A.I.E.T
Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh
India
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Disclaimer
The work followed is original editing of mine (but
the information has been referred through many
internet sources) and has been conceived as the part
of the seminar report submitted to the institution.
This is to therefore kindly inform the viewers that
any information in this report should not be trusted
blindly and thus I am not responsible for any ill
consequences arising due to this.
Shubham Pandey
Azad Institute of Engineering and Technology
Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India
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Disk Interface Technology
The demand for storage to be available anytime, anywhere is driving the

development of a new mix of disk interface technologies. This guide provides a basic comparison
of existing and emerging technologies to help sort through the options that are available today and
in the future. A comparative matrix of key features follows.
Parallel Advanced Technology Attachments (ATA)
Parallel ATA, commonly referred to as simply ―ATA‖, is an industry

specification that evolved from the original Advanced Technology disk-interface. The ATA
standard, first developed in 1984 defines a command and register set for the interface between the
disk drive and the PC. Today’s ATA-133 interface delivers a maximum data transfer rate of 133
MB/sec and supports two parallel ports, with each port supporting two internal hard drives. ATA
is currently the standard hard disk drive interconnect in desktop PCs and is implemented in many
Direct Attached Storage (DAS) and Network Attached Storage (NAS) systems.
Parallel Small Computer System Interface (SCSI)
Parallel SCSI, better known as ―SCSI‖, is a shared bus technology that

connects various internal and external devices to a PC or server. SCSI technology allows for
connectivity of up to 15 devices, and Ultra320 SCSI supports a data transfer rate of up to 320
MB/sec. First approved as a standard in 1986, SCSI technology has evolved to be the most widely
used interface in workstations, as well as in servers and networked storage systems today.
Fiber Channel (FC)
Fiber Channel serves two purposes. It is both a high-speed switched fabric

technology, and a disk interface technology. It supports a maximum data transfer rate of 400
MB/sec (full duplex; or half duplex, dual loop configuration) over 30 meters of copper cable or 10
kilometers over single-mode fiber optic links. When implemented in a continuous arbitrated loop
(FC-AL), Fiber Channel can support up to 127 individual storage devices and host systems without
a switch. Disk arrays and backup devices directly attach to the loop rather than onto any one server.
FC was first approved as a standard in 1994 and is primarily implemented in high-end SAN
systems.
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Serial Advanced Technology Attachments 1.0 (SATA)
Developed in 2001, SATA is the first generation of the new disk interface
technology replacing Parallel ATA. In desktops, SATA is expected to replace Parallel ATA as the
primary internal storage for PCs. SATA 1.0 delivers a maximum data transfer rate of 1.5 GB/sec
(1500 MB/sec) per port and its future roadmap shows growth to 6.0 GB/sec (6000 MB/sec).
Advantages of SATA include a point-to-point interconnect that enables full bandwidth available to
each device, lower pin-count, lower voltage, hot-plug capability, thin cabling, longer cable length
and register-level compatibility with Parallel ATA. These added features make SATA an option for
DAS, NAS and some Storage Area Network (SAN) systems where Parallel ATA may not have
been considered.
Serial Advanced Technology Attachments II (SATA II)
SATA II is the second-generation SATA disk interface technology currently under

development by the SATA working group. The SATA II specification picks up where SATA 1.0
left off, and will be deployed in 2 phases. The first phase, called ―Extensions to Serial ATA 1.0‖,
focuses primarily on addressing the needs of servers and networked storage. These include
queuing, enclosure services, hot plug, cold presence detect, cabling and backplane improvements.
The second phase is anticipated to scale performance to 3.0 GB/sec (3000 MB/sec) per port. These
combined enhancements will make SATA II a good option for DAS, NAS and SAN storage
systems where price/performance and cost are key factors.
Serial Attached Small Computer System Interface (SAS)
Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) is under development by the T10 standards committee.
This committee is addressing the future limitations of the parallel SCSI interface, principally the
bandwidth scaling limitations inherent in a parallel interface. SAS will deliver a maximum data
transfer of 3.0 GB/sec (3000 MB/sec) per device, and it can support up to 128 devices via an
expander. One of the key features of SAS is its anticipated ability to allow users to connect either a
SATA or a SAS hard disk drive in an enclosure with expander capabilities. Its point-to-point
configuration and highly scalable architecture makes SAS a good option for mid-range to high-end
DAS, NAS and SAN storage systems.
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ATA SCSI Fiber SATA SATA II Serial
Channel Attached
SCSI
Performance
Technology 2000 2002 2001 2002 2003 2004
Introduction
(Year)
Maximum 100 MB/s 320 MB/s 4 GB/s 1.5GB/sec 3 GB/sec 3 GB/sec

Bus Speed shared per Shared per dedicated dedicated dedicated dedicated
channel channel or shared per device per device per device
Topology Shared bus Shared bus Arbitrated Point-to- Point-to- Point-to-

master/slave loop/ point point point
switched
fabric
Number of 2 15 127/ 1 1 1
Device arbitrated (expandable (expandable (expandable
/Channel loop to 128) to 128) to 128)
Command No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes

Queuing
Primary Applications
Device Internal Internal External Internal Internal Internal
Placement /External /External /External
Hard Disk Desktop Enterprise Enterprise Desktop Desktop Enterprise

Drive(HDD) with some with some
Classes Enterprise Enterprise
features features
Devices Many Many Few Many Many Few
other than
HDDs
Characteristics
Internal 2 inches 1.75 inches 0.156 0.312 0.312 0.312
cable width inches inches inches inches
Number of 40 68 or 80 4 22 (7 22 (7 22 (7
cable pins (+40 signal) signal) signal)
conductors)
Maximum 18 inches 12 metres 10 Kms 1 metres 6 metres 10 metres
Cable
length
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Parallel Advanced Technology Attachments (PATA)
ATA/ATAPI is an evolution of the AT Attachment Interface, which was itself

evolved in several stages from Western Digital's original Integrated Drive Electronics (IDE)
interface. Parallel ATA (PATA) is an interface standard for the connection of storage devices such
as hard disks, solid-state drives, and CD-ROM drives in computers. The standard is maintained by
X3/INCITS committee. It uses the underlying AT Attachment and AT Attachment Packet Interface
(ATA/ATAPI) standards. Parallel ATA only allows cable lengths up to 18 in (460 mm). Because of
this length limit the technology normally appears as an internal computer storage interface. The
name of the standard was originally conceived as "PC/AT Attachment" as its primary feature was a
direct connection to the 16-bit ISA bus introduced with the IBM PC/AT. The name was shortened
to "AT Attachment" to avoid possible trademark issues. It is not spelled out as "Advanced
Technology" anywhere in current or recent versions of the specification; it is simply "AT
Attachment".
IDE and ATA-1
The term Integrated Drive Electronics (IDE) refers not just to the connector and interface
definition, but also to the fact that the drive controller is integrated into the drive, as opposed to a
separate controller on or connected to the motherboard. The integrated controller presented the
drive to the host computer as an array of 512-byte blocks with a relatively simple command
interface. This relieved the software in the host computer of the chores of stepping the disk head
arm, moving the head arm in and out, and so on, as had to be done with earlier ST-506 and ESDI
hard drives. All of these low-level details of the mechanical operation of the drive were now
handled by the controller on the drive itself. This also eliminated the need to design a single
controller that could handle many different types of drives, since the controller could be unique for
the drive. The host need only ask for a particular sector, or block, to be read or written, and either
accept the data from the drive or send the data to it.
The second ATA interface
Originally, there was only one ATA controller in early PCs, which could support up to two
hard drives. At the time in combination with the floppy drive, this was sufficient for most people,
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and eventually it became common to have two hard drives installed. When the CDROM was
developed, many computers were unable to accept them due to already having two hard drives
installed. Adding the CDROM would have required removal of one of the drives. Although SCSI
was available as a CDROM expansion option at the time, but devices with SCSI were more
expensive than ATA devices due to the need for a smart controller that is capable of bus arbitration.
SCSI typically added US$ 100-300 to the cost of a storage device, in addition to the cost of a SCSI
controller. The less-expensive solution was the addition of the second ATA interface, typically
included as an expansion option on a sound card. It was included on the sound card because early
business PCs did not include support for more than simple beeps from the internal speaker, and
tuneful sound playback was considered unnecessary for early business software. ATA ruled as the
primary storage device interface and in some systems a third and fourth motherboard interface was
provided for up to eight ATA devices attached to the motherboard. Enhanced IDE (EIDE)
included most of the features of the forthcoming ATA-2 specification and several additional
enhancements. Other manufacturers introduced their own variations of ATA-1 such as "Fast ATA"
and "Fast ATA-2". ATA-2 also was the first to note that devices other than hard drives could be
attached to the interface.
AT Attachments Packet Interface (ATAPI)
The introduction of ATAPI (ATA Packet Interface) by a group called the Small Form
Factor committee allowed ATA to be used for a variety of other devices that require functions
beyond those necessary for hard disks. ATAPI devices include CD-ROM and DVD-ROM drives,
tape drives, and large-capacity floppy drives such as the Zip drive and Super Disk drive. ATAPI is
actually a protocol allowing the ATA interface to carry SCSI commands and responses; therefore
all ATAPI devices are actually "speaking SCSI" other than at the electrical interface. In fact, some
early ATAPI devices were simply SCSI devices with an ATA/ATAPI to SCSI protocol converter
added on. The SCSI commands and responses are embedded in "packets" (hence "ATA Packet
Interface") for transmission on the ATA cable. This allows any device class for which a SCSI
command set has been defined to be interfaced via ATA/ATAPI.
Drive size limitations
The original ATA specification used a 28-bit addressing mode, allowing for the addressing
of 228 sectors of 512 bytes each, resulting in a maximum capacity of about 137 GB. The BIOS in
early PCs imposed smaller limits such as 8.46 GB, with a maximum of 1024 cylinders, 256 heads
and 63 sectors, but this was not a limit imposed by the ATA interface. ATA-6 introduced 48-bit
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addressing, increasing the limit to 144 Petabytes. As a consequence, any ATA drive of capacity
larger than 137 gigabytes must be an ATA-6 or later drive. Connecting such a drive to a host with
an ATA-5 or earlier interface will limit the usable capacity to the maximum of the controller.
Parallel ATA interface
Parallel ATA cables transfer data 16 bits at a time. ATA's ribbon cables have had 40 wires
for most of its history (44 conductors for the smaller form-factor version used for 2.5" drives), but
an 80 wire version appeared with the introduction of the Ultra DMA/33 (UDMA) mode. All of the
additional wires in the new cable are ground wires, interleaved with the previously defined wires to
reduce the effects of capacitive coupling between neighboring signal wires, reducing crosstalk.
Capacitive coupling is more of a problem at higher transfer rates, and this change was necessary to
enable the 66 MB/s transfer rate of UDMA4 to work reliably. The faster UDMA5 and UDMA6
modes also require 80-conductor cables.
Connector Assignments and Color Coding: For the first time, the 80-conductor cable defines
specific roles for each of the connectors on the cable; the older cable did not. Color coding of the
connectors is used to make it easier to determine which connector goes with each device:
Blue: The blue connector attaches to the host (motherboard or controller).

Gray: The gray connector is in the middle of the cable, and goes to any slave (device 1)
drive if present on the channel.
Black: The black connector is at the opposite end from the host connector and goes to the
master drive (device 0), or a single drive if only one is used.
(PATA connector cable side)
Pin Signal Description

1 /RESET Reset
2 GND Ground
3 DD7 Data 7
4 DD8 Data 8
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5 DD6 Data 6
6 DD9 Data 9
7 DD5 Data 5
8 DD10 Data 10
9 DD4 Data 4
10 DD11 Data 11
11 DD3 Data 3
12 DD12 Data 12
13 DD2 Data 2
14 DD13 Data 13
15 DD1 Data 1
16 DD14 Data 14 (Comparison between the size of 40 conductor cable)
17 DD0 Data 0
18 DD15 Data 15
19 GND Ground
20 KEY Key
21 n/c Not connected
22 GND Ground
23 /IOW Write Strobe
24 GND Ground
25 /IOR Read Strobe
26 GND Ground
27 IO_CH_RDY I/O channel ready
28 ALE Address Latch Enable
29 n/c Not connected (40 conductor PATA Cable)
30 GND Ground
Multiple devices on a cable
31 IRQR Interrupt Request
32 /IOCS16 IO Chip Select 16 If two devices attach to a single cable, one
33 DA1 Address 1 must be designated as device 0 (commonly
34 n/c Not connected
referred to as master) and the other as device 1
35 DA0 Address 0
(slave). This distinction is necessary to allow both
36 DA2 Address 2
37 /IDE_CS0 (1F0-1F7) drives to share the cable without conflict. The
38 /IDE_CS1 (3F6-3F7) master drive is the drive that usually appears
39 /ACTIVE Led driver "first" to the computer's BIOS and/or operating
40 GND Ground system. The mode that a drive must use is often set
by a jumper setting on the drive itself, which must be manually set to master or slave. If there is a
single device on a cable, it should be configured as master
Cable Select
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Cable select is controlled by pin 28. The host adapter grounds this pin; if a device sees that the pin
is grounded, it becomes the master device; if it sees that pin 28 is open, the device becomes the
slave device. This setting is usually chosen by a jumper setting on the drive called "cable select",
usually marked CS, which is separate from the "master" or "slave" setting. Note that if two drives
are configured as master and slave manually, this configuration does not need to correspond to their
position on the cable. Pin 28 is only used to let the drives know their position on the cable; it is not
used by the host when communicating with the drives.
With the 40-wire cable it was very common to implement cable select by simply cutting the pin 28
wire between the two device connectors; putting the slave device at the end of the cable, and the
master on the middle connector. If there is just one device on the cable, this results in an unused
stub of cable, which is undesirable for physical convenience and electrical reasons. The stub causes
signal reflections, particularly at higher transfer rates.
Starting with the 80-wire cable defined for use in ATAPI5/UDMA4, the master device goes at the
end of the 18-inch (460 mm) cable--the black connector--and the slave device goes on the middle
connector--the gray one--and the blue connector goes onto the motherboard. So, if there is only one
(master) device on the cable, there is no cable stub to cause reflections.
Two devices on one cable — speed impact
It is a common misconception that, if two devices of different speed capabilities are on the same
cable, both devices' data transfers will be constrained to the speed of the slower device. For all
modern ATA host adapters this is not true, as modern ATA host adapters support independent
device timing. This allows each device on the cable to transfer data at its own best speed.
Only one device on a cable can perform a read or write operation at one time, therefore a fast
device on the same cable as a slow device under heavy use will find it has to wait for the slow
device to complete its task first. However, most modern devices will report write operations as
complete once the data is stored in its onboard cache memory, before the data is written to the
(slow) magnetic storage. This allows commands to be sent to the other device on the cable,
reducing the impact of the "one operation at a time" limit.
Parallel AT version details and features
ATA-1 (IDE), 8.3MBytes/sec, 8 or 16 bit data width, 40 pin data ribbon cable/connector.
With a maximum of 2 devices on the bus. Using PIO Modes 0, 1 or 2. Performed no bus
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error correction. The ATA-1 specification was released in 1994, and was withdrawn in
1999.
ATA-2 (EIDE, or Fast ATA), 16.6MBytes/sec, 8 or 16 bit data width, 40 pin data ribbon
cable/connector. With a maximum of 4 devices on the bus. Using PIO Modes 0, 1, 2, 3, or
4. The ATA-2 specification was released in 1995 and was withdrawn in 2001.
ATA-3, 16MBytes/sec, 16 bit data width, 40 pin data ribbon cable/connector. Using PIO
Modes 0, 1, 2, 3, or 4 and Multiword DMA modes 1 and 2. Runs with 120nS Strobes (rising
edge to rising edge). Includes CRC. ATAPI (ATA Packet Interface) is the CD-ROM side of
the interface. It uses the same connector as ATA, and adds 1 for analog and 1 for digital
audio. The ATA-3 specification was released in 1997 and was withdrawn in 2002.
ATA-4 Ultra-ATA/33, 33MBytes/sec, 16 bit data width, 40 pin data ribbon cable/connector.
Using PIO Modes 0, 1, 2, 3, or 4 and Multiword DMA modes 1 and 2 and Ultra DMA
modes 0, 1, and 2. Runs with 120 nS strobes (rising edge to rising edge), but used both
edges of the Strobe producing an effective 60nS Strobe rate. 33MBps Transfer speed =
[(1/120nS) x 2 bytes x 2]. Where 120nS cycle time is 4 clock periods at 30nS each. Added
CRC checking. The ATA-4 standard was released in 1998.
ATA-5 Ultra-ATA/66, 66MBytes/sec, 16 bit data width 40 pin data connector/80 pin cable,
with the additional 40 new pins being Ground. The new cable allows ATA/66 to run at a
faster rate then ATA/33. Using PIO Modes 0, 1, 2, 3, or 4 and Multiword DMA modes 1
and 2 and Ultra DMA modes 0, 1, 2, 3 and 4. Runs with 60nS Strobes (rising edge to rising
edge), but uses both edges of the Strobe producing an effective 30nS Strobe rate. 66MBps
Transfer speed = [(1/60nS) x 2 bytes x 2]. Where 60nS cycle time is 2 clock periods at 30nS
each. The ATA-5 standard was released in 2000.
ATA-6 Ultra-ATA/100, 100MBytes/sec,16 bit data width 40 pin data connector/80 pin
cable, with the additional 40 new pins being Ground. Using PIO Modes 0, 1, 2, 3, or 4 and
Multiword DMA modes 1 and 2 and Ultra DMA modes 0, 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5. 100MBps
each. The ATA-6 standard was released in 2002.
ATA-7 Ultra-ATA/133, 133MBytes/sec,16 bit data width 40 pin data connector/80 pin
cable, with the additional 40 new pins being Ground. Using PIO Modes 0, 1, 2, 3, or 4 and
Multiword DMA modes 0, 1 and 2 and Ultra DMA modes 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6. 133MBps
each. The ATA-7 standard was released in 2005. With the introduction of Serial ATA, this
is the last expected update of the IDE [PATA] bus. SATA is faster, and requires a smaller
cable, which means better air flow in the case.
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Parallel Small Computer System Interface
SCSI is a set of standards for physically connecting and transferring data between
computers and peripheral devices. The SCSI standards define commands, protocols, and electrical
and optical interfaces. SCSI is most commonly used for hard disks and tape drives, but it can
connect a wide range of other devices, including scanners and CD drives. The SCSI standard
defines command sets for specific peripheral device types; the presence of "unknown" as one of
these types means that in theory it can be used as an interface to almost any device, but the standard
is highly pragmatic and addressed toward commercial requirements.
SCSI is an intelligent interface: it hides the complexity of physical format. Every device
attaches to the SCSI bus in a similar manner.
SCSI is a peripheral interface: up to 8 or 16 devices can be attached to a single bus. There
can be any number of hosts and peripheral devices but there should be at least one host.
SCSI is a buffered interface: it uses hand shake signals between devices, SCSI-1, SCSI-2
have the option of parity error checking. Starting with SCSI-U160 (part of SCSI-3) all
commands and data are error checked by a CRC32 checksum.
SCSI is a peer to peer interface: the SCSI protocol defines communication from host to host, host to
a peripheral device, peripheral device to a peripheral device. However most peripheral devices are
exclusively SCSI targets, incapable of acting as SCSI initiators unable to initiate SCSI transactions
themselves. Therefore peripheral-to-peripheral communications are uncommon, but possible in
most SCSI applications.
An overview
SCSI Type Speed Bus Pins Connector

ID's
(MBps) Width
SCSI-1 1 to 5 8 25 or 50 Sub-D25, Amphenol 50,
8
Sub-D50
SCSI-2 5 to 10 8 50 8 Micro-D50
SCSI-2 up to 40 16 50 Micro-D50
8
fast/wide
SCSI-3 16 68 32 Micro-D68
SCSI-3 32 68 Micro-D68
32
fast/wide
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The SCSI interface is a parallel interface the communication between devices is done by initiators
and targets. An initiator is a device which requests something from a target. The initiator is most
commonly a host-adapter in a computer. The target is the one that takes the job and carries it out.
Because of the definition of SCSI that a job is given by a initiator and then carried out by a target
without the initiator knowing how the target is doing it and even not knowing when the job is done
the roles of initiator and target may switch. As soon as the target is done with its job it initiates the
host, which will become target. The purpose of all this is that as soon as the target knows what the
initiator wants the bus will become free for other jobs to be send to other targets. The bus is used
more economically. Instead of a computer waiting for data coming from a scanner, the bus can be
used by the computer to read data from the hard disk. SCSI has the capability to connect more than
two devices to a bus. These devices may be targets or initiators. So it is possible for two hosts to
share one tape streamer, but it is also possible for one host to have access to several hard disks. The
identification of the devices is done by an ID. SCSI-1 and SCSI-2 have a maximum of 8 ID's and
SCSI-3 has even 32 possible ID's. There is no such thing as plain SCSI. There is SCSI-1, -2 and -3
and together with this there is Differential and Single-ended, and for the termination there is
passive and active. Single-ended means that there is a ground and a signal wire. Much like in
RS232. Differential on the other hand has no ground wire, but all signals have two wires, a positive
and a negative one and the voltage difference between them carries the information (1 or 0). Much
like RS422. To make everything more complex the SCSI bus must be terminated to work properly.
In SCSI there is active termination, which means the termination is done by a voltage regulator and
some resistors. This is for the Single-Ended interface. With differential SCSI live is easier. There is
only passive termination which means a resistor is placed at the end and at the beginning of the
cable. But it's not the same termination as for passive single-ended SCSI. And finally there is the
difference between SCSI-3 and SCSI-2 wide. Both have 16 bytes transmissions, but SCSI-2 has
only 50 wires and SCSI-3 has 68, so why take a, more expensive cable? The reason is that SCSI-2
has a 50 wire cable and only 8 data lines there will be a low and high byte transmission. Each 16 bit
word is split in a low and a high byte. These are transmitted one after the other and thus taking
twice as long as 16 bit SCSI-3. This makes SCSI-3 faster and more economic.
There are a dozen SCSI interface names, most with ambiguous wording (like Fast SCSI, Fast Wide
SCSI, Ultra SCSI, and Ultra Wide SCSI); three SCSI standards, each of which has a collection of
modular, optional features; several different connector types; and three different types of voltage
signaling. The leading SCSI card manufacturer, Adaptec, has manufactured over 100 varieties of
SCSI cards over the years. In actual practice, many experienced technicians simply refer to SCSI
devices by their bus bandwidth (i.e. SCSI 320 or SCSI 160) in Megabytes per second.
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SCSI-1 features an 8-bit parallel bus (with parity), running asynchronously at 3.5 MB/s or 5 MB/s
in synchronous mode, and a maximum bus cable length of 6 meters. A rarely seen variation on the
original standard included a high-voltage differential (HVD) implementation whose maximum
cable length was 25 meters.
SCSI-2 standard was introduced in 1994 and gave rise to the Fast SCSI and Wide SCSI variants.
Fast SCSI doubled the maximum transfer rate to 10 MB/s and Wide SCSI doubled the bus width to
16 bits on top of that to reach a maximum transfer rate of 20 MB/s.
Ultra-2 SCSI was introduced in 1997 and featured a low-voltage differential (LVD) bus. For this
reason ultra-2 is sometimes referred to as LVD SCSI. LVD's greater resistance to noise allowed a
maximum bus cable length of 12 meters. At the same time, the data transfer rate was increased to
80 MB/s. Ultra-2 SCSI actually had a relatively short lifespan, as it was soon superseded by Ultra-3
(Ultra-160) SCSI.
Ultra-3 also known as Ultra-160 SCSI and introduced toward the end of 1999, this version was
basically an improvement on the ultra-2 standard, in that the transfer rate was doubled once more to
160 MB/s by the use of double transition clocking. Ultra-160 SCSI offered new features like cyclic
redundancy check (CRC), an error correcting process, and domain validation.
Ultra-320 is the Ultra-160 standard with the data transfer rate doubled to 320 MB/s. The latest
working draft for this standard is revision 10 and is dated May 6, 2002. Nearly all SCSI hard drives
being manufactured at the end of 2003 were Ultra-320 devices.
Ultra-640, otherwise known as Fast-320 was promulgated as a standard (INCITS 367-2003 or SPI-
5) in early 2003. Ultra-640 doubles the interface speed yet again, this time to 640 MB/s. Ultra-640
pushes the limits of LVD signaling; the speed limits cable lengths drastically, making it impractical
for more than one or two devices. Because of this, most manufacturers have skipped over Ultra640
and are developing for Serial Attached SCSI instead.
SCSI IDs
All devices on a parallel SCSI bus must have a SCSI ID. The initiator (adapter or controller) SCSI
ID is usually set by a physical jumper or switch. The target (disk-drive) SCSI IDs are either set by
physical jumpers or by control signals which vary for each connector on an enclosure backplane.
The SCSI ID field widths are:
Bus-width ID width IDs available

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8-bit 3-bit 8
16-bit 4-bit 16
Arbitration
All SCSI commands start with a process called arbitration when one or more devices attempt to
access the bus. During the arbitration phase, the 8 or 16 data bus signals are used to identify which
device(s) are requesting access. All SCSI devices must implement the same arbitration algorithm so
the result is always unanimous. SCSI IDs are used in the arbitration phase to determine which
device next gets access to the SCSI bus. If two devices attempt to access the bus at the same time
then the one with the highest priority SCSI ID will win the arbitration. The priority sequence for an
8-bit wide parallel SCSI bus is quite simple, but the priority sequence for a 16-bit wide parallel
SCSI bus has to meet legacy requirements so is less obvious:
Bus width SCSI ID priority (from highest to lowest)

8-bit 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 0
16-bit 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 0, 15, 14, 13, 12, 11, 10, 9, 8
The SCSI ID of the initiator is usually set to the highest priority value of 7. If there are two
initiators then their SCSI IDs are usually set to 7 and 6. All the remaining SCSI IDs can then be
used for disk-drives or other target devices. The arbitration process can use up a lot of bus
bandwidth so more recent devices support a simplified protocol called Quick Arbitration and
Selection (QAS).
Termination
Parallel SCSI buses must always be terminated at both ends to ensure reliable operation. Without
termination, data transitions would reflect back from the ends of the bus causing pulse distortion
and potential data loss. A positive DC termination voltage is provided by one or more devices on
the bus, typically the initiator(s). This positive voltage is called TERMPOWER and is usually
around +4.3 volts. TERMPOWER is normally generated by a diode connection to +5.0 volts. This
is called a diode-OR circuit, designed to prevent backflow of current to the supplying device. A
device that supplies TERMPOWER must be able to provide up to 900 mA (single-ended SCSI) or
600 mA (differential SCSI).
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Termination can be passive or active. Passive termination means that each signal line is
terminated by two resistors, 220 Ω to TERMPOWER and 330 Ω to ground. Active termination
means that there is a small voltage regulator which provides a +3.3 V supply. Each signal line is
then terminated by a 110 Ω resistor to the +3.3 V supply. Active termination provides a better
impedance match than passive termination because most flat ribbon cables have a characteristic
impedance of approximately 110 Ω. Forced perfect (FPT) termination is similar to active
termination, but with added diode clamp circuits which absorb any residual voltage overshoot or
undershoot. There is a special case in SCSI systems that have mixed 8-bit and 16-bit devices where
high-byte termination may be required. In current practice most parallel SCSI buses are LVD and
so require external, active termination. The usual termination circuit consists of a +3.3 V linear
regulator and commercially available SCSI resistor network devices.
Pin configuration of 50 pin SCSI
Pin # Single Differential

Ended Signal Name
Signal Name
1 GROUND GROUND
2 GROUND +DB0
3 GROUND +DB1
4 GROUND +DB2
5 GROUND +DB3
6 GROUND +DB4
7 GROUND +DB5
8 GROUND +DB6
9 GROUND +DB7
10 GROUND +PARITY
11 GROUND DIFFSENSE
12 RESERVED RESERVED
13 OPEN TERMPWR
15 GROUND +ATN
16 GROUND GROUND
17 GROUND +BSY
18 GROUND +ACK
19 GROUND +RST
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20 GROUND +MSG Pin # Single Differential
21 GROUND +SEL Ended Signal Name
22 GROUND +C/D Signal Name
23 GROUND +REQ 26 -DB0 GROUND
24 GROUND +I/O 27 -DB1 -DB0
25 GROUND GROUND 28 -DB2 -DB1
29 -DB3 -DB2
30 -DB4 -DB3
31 -DB5 -DB4
32 -DB6 -DB5
33 -DB7 -DB6
34 -PARITY -DB7
35 GROUND -PARITY
36 GROUND GROUND
38 TERMPWR TERMPWR
40 GROUND -ATN
41 -ATN GROUND
42 GROUND -BSY
43 -BSY -ACK
44 -ACK -RST
45 -RST -MSG
46 -MSG -SEL
47 -SEL -C/D
48 -C/D -REQ
49 -REQ -I/O
50 -I/O GROUND
Pin configuration of 68 pin SCSI
Pin # Single Ended Differential

Signal Name Signal name
1 GROUND +DB12
2 GROUND +DB13
3 GROUND +DB14
4 GROUND +DB15
5 GROUND +PARITY1
6 GROUND GROUND
7 GROUND +DB0
8 GROUND +DB1
9 GROUND +DB2
10 GROUND +DB3
11 GROUND +DB4
12 GROUND +DB5
13 GROUND +DB6
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14 GROUND +DB7 Pin # Single Ended Differential
15 GROUND +PARITY Signal Name Signal name
16 GROUND DIFFSENSE 35 -DB12 -DB12
17 TERMPWR TERMPWR 36 -DB13 -DB13
18 TERMPWR TERMPWR 37 -DB14 -DB14
19 RESERVED RESERVED 38 -DB15 -DB15
20 GROUND +ATN 39 -PARITY1 -PARITY1
21 GROUND GROUND 40 -DB0 GROUND
22 GROUND +BSY 41 -DB1 -DB0
23 GROUND +ACK 42 -DB2 -DB1
24 GROUND +RST 43 -DB3 -DB2
25 GROUND +MSG 44 -DB4 -DB3
26 GROUND +SEL 45 -DB5 -DB4
27 GROUND +C/D 46 -DB6 -DB5
28 GROUND +REQ 47 -DB7 -DB6
29 GROUND +I/O 48 -PARITY -DB7
30 GROUND GROUND 49 GROUND -PARITY
31 GROUND +DB8 50 GROUND GROUND
32 GROUND +DB9 51 TERMPWR TERMPWR
33 GROUND +DB10 52 TERMPWR TERMPWR
34 GROUND +DB11 53 RESERVED RESERVED
54 GROUND -ATN
55 -ATN GROUND
56 GROUND -BSY
57 -BSY -ACK
58 -ACK -RST
59 -RST -MSG
60 -MSG -SEL
61 -SEL -C/D
62 -C/D -REQ
63 -REQ -I/O
64 -I/O GROUND
65 -DB8 -DB8
66 -DB9 -DB9
67 -DB10 -DB10
68 -DB11 -DB11
Fibre Channel
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FC is a gigabit-speed network technology primarily used for storage networking. Fibre Channel is
standardized in the T11 - INCITS. It started use primarily in the supercomputer field, but has
become the standard connection type for SAN in enterprise storage. Despite its name, Fibre
Channel signaling can run on both twisted pair copper wire and fiber-optic cables. Fibre Channel
deploys Fibre Channel Protocol (FCP) which predominantly transports SCSI commands over
Fibre Channel networks.
Fibre Channel topologies
There are three major Fibre Channel topologies, describing how a number of ports are connected
together. A port in Fibre Channel terminology is any entity that actively communicates over the
network, not necessarily a hardware port. This port is usually implemented in a device such as disk
storage, an HBA on a server or a Fibre Channel switch.
1) Point-to-Point (FC-P2P). Two devices are connected back to back. This is the simplest
topology, with limited connectivity.
2) Arbitrated loop (FC-AL). In this design, all devices are in a loop or ring, similar to token
ring networking. Adding or removing a device from the loop causes all activity on the loop
to be interrupted. The failure of one device causes a break in the ring. Fibre Channel hubs
exist to connect multiple devices together and may bypass failed ports. A loop may also be
made by cabling each port to the next in a ring.
A minimal loop containing only two ports, while appearing to be similar to FC-P2P,
differs considerably in terms of the protocol.
Multiple pairs of ports may communicate simultaneously in a loop.
3) Switched fabric (FC-SW). All devices or loops of devices are connected to Fibre Channel
switches, similar conceptually to modern Ethernet implementations. Advantages of this
topology over FC-P2P or FC-AL include:
The switches manage the state of the fabric, providing optimized interconnections.
The traffic between two ports flows through the switches only, it is not transmitted
to any other port.
Failure of a port is isolated and should not affect operation of other ports.
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Optical carrier medium variants
Media Type Speed (MByte/s) Transmitter Distance

Single-Mode Fiber 400 1300 nm Long wave Laser 2 m - 2 km
200 1550 nm Long wave Laser 2 m - >50 km

1300 nm Long wave Laser 2 m - 2 km
100 1550 nm Long wave Laser 2 m - >50 km
Multimode Fiber (50µm) 400 850 nm Short wave Laser 0.5 m - 150m
200 0.5 m - 300m

100 0.5 m - 500m
2 m - 175m
Fibre Channel and Networks
Though it has many features of a network, Fibre Channel is less a network than a high speed
switching system that interconnects relatively local devices. With its high bandwidth and ability to
support multiple protocols simultaneously, Fibre Channel enables near-instant access to massive
amounts of data in SANs and other modern computing environments. Collision-based Ethernet
networks are ubiquitous, largely because they allow multiple individual clients to share retrieved
data in a very simple and economical way. Such networks are most successful when supporting
front-end functions. However, they are too inefficient to be used in block-level storage
environments, such as those found in data centers. For throughput, scalability, and attainable
network lengths, Fibre Channel is far superior to Ethernet.
Data throughput With the currently available 2Gb-rated Fibre Channel in the network, data
transfer rates are very close to 200MB/s, as expected. In a Gigabit Ethernet network,
however, collision management claims so much bandwidth that even 1Gb rates are difficult
to achieve consistently.
Scalability. Whether device connections consist of a single point-to-point link or involve
hundreds of integrated, enterprise wide servers, Fibre Channel networks perform with equal
reliability, high rates, and flexible configuration, achieving scalable densities up to
thousands of ports. Although IP-based storage networks theoretically can scale to hundreds
of ports, there is no widespread use to demonstrate this capability.
Network lengths. With Fibre Channel, the switches and cables that carry the data, can be
either copper or optical fibre. Performance is the same, though copper is limited in length to
less than 3 meters. Without the benefit of repeaters, long-haul copper Ethernet networks are
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limited to 100–200 meters, depending on the Ethernet protocol version. Currently, the
maximum theoretical distance for long-haul Fibre Channel networks using fibre-optic links
is 10 Kms.
Deployment Scenarios of FC
Workgroup SAN
Consider this type of deployment when you need to manage many large files and rapidly
growing amounts of data—video and audio editing and storage, for example. The RAID storage
pool allows quick, reliable scaling of storage and backup capabilities. Fibre Channel uniquely
provides in-order delivery of data, necessary for efficient access to media files. In addition to the
Fibre Channel switch, dedicated metadata controllers help mediate traffic for maximum data
transfer rates.
Fibre Channel connector pin configurations

There are various Fibre Channel connectors in use in the computer industry. The following
sections describe the most common Fibre Channel pinouts with some comments about the purpose
of their electrical signals. The most familiar Fibre Channel connectors are cable connectors, used
for interconnects between initiators and targets (usually disk enclosures). There are also "device
connectors" that can be found on Fibre Channel disk-drives and backplanes of enclosures. The
device connectors include pins for power and for setting disk options.
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9-pin "DE-9" cable connector
Pin Signal name Comments Optional pins 2, 3, 7, and 8 are intended

1 +OUT Fibre channel output for use with an external optical
2 +5V Optional
3 Module Fault Detect Optional converter. This is often called a Media
4 Reserved Interface Assembly (MIA). Fibre
5 +IN Fibre channel input
6 -OUT Fibre channel output channel DE-9 connectors often have
7 Output Disable Optional only the 4 required contacts installed.
8 GND Optional, return for pin 2
9 -IN Fibre channel input Note that they are the four outermost
contacts. This is an easy way to tell a fibre channel cable from an RS-232 cable.
8-pin "HSSDC" cable connector (High Speed Serial Data Connection)
Pin Signal name Comments Optional pins 2, 4, 5, and 7 are intended

1 +OUT Fibre channel output for use with an external optical converter.
2 GND Optional, return for pin 7
3 -OUT Fibre channel output This is often called a Media Interface
4 Module Fault Detect Optional Assembly (MIA).
5 Output Disable Optional
6 -IN Fibre channel input
7 +5V Optional
8 +IN Fibre channel input
40-pin "SCA-2" disk connector
Although SCA-2 is the official name for this connector, it is often called SCA-40 to distinguish it
by its pin count from other similar connectors.
Pin Signal name Comments
1 -EN Bypass Port 1 Output driven high when port 1 is operating correctly
2 +12V
3 +12V
4 +12V
5 -Parallel ESI Input to allow ESI operation using the SELx pins
6 -Drive Present
7 ACTLED Output to drive the activity LED cathode
8 Power Control
9 START1 Input to control spin-up behavior (see the Disk options section)
10 START2 Input to control spin-up behavior (see the Disk options section)
11 -EN Bypass Port 2 Output driven high when port 2 is operating correctly
12 SEL6 Device ID bit 6 / ESI write clock
13 SEL5 Device ID bit 5 / ESI read clock
14 SEL4 Device ID bit 4 / ESI acknowledge clock
15 SEL3 Device ID bit 3 / ESI bit 3
16 FLTLED Output to drive the fault LED cathode
17 DEVCTRL2 Input to control interface speed (see the Disk options section)
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19 +5V
20 +5V
21 +12V Charge
22 GND (12V)
23 GND (12V)
24 +IN1 Fibre channel input
25 -IN1 Fibre channel input
26 GND (12V)
27 +IN2 Fibre channel input
28 -IN2 Fibre channel input
29 GND (12V)
30 +OUT1 Fibre channel output
31 -OUT1 Fibre channel output
32 GND (5V)
33 +OUT2 Fibre channel output
34 -OUT2 Fibre channel output
35 GND (5V)
40 +5V CHARGE
Fibre Channel connectors
Fibre Channel connection

port to computer
[Type text] Page 23

Serial AT Attachments
Serial ATA or simply SATA is the hard disk standard created to replace the
parallel ATA interface, also known as IDE. SATA provides a transfer rate of 150 MB/s or 300
MB/s against of a 133 MB/s maximum using the previous technology. The conventional IDE port
(now called parallel ATA or simply PATA) transfers data in parallel. The advantage of parallel
transmission over serial transmission is the higher speed of the former mode, seeing that several
bits are sent at the same time. Its major disadvantage, however, relates to noise. As many wires
have to be used (at least one for each bit to be sent per turn), one wire generates interference in
another. This is why ATA-66 and higher hard disks require a special, 80-wire cable. The difference
between this 80-wire cable and the normal 40-wire IDE cable is that it includes a ground wire
between each original wire, providing anti-interference shielding. Serial ATA, on the other hand,
transmits data in serial mode, i.e. one bit per time. Traditional thinking makes us to think that serial
transmission is slower than parallel transmission. This is only true if we are comparing
transmissions using the same clock rate. In this case parallel transmission will be at least eight
times faster, as it transmits at least eight bits (one byte) per clock cycle, compared to serial
transmission where only one bit is transmitted per clock cycle. However, if a higher clock rate is
used on serial transmission, it can be faster than parallel. That’s exactly what happens with Serial
ATA. The problem in increasing parallel transmission transfer rate is increasing the clock rate, as
the higher the clock rate, more problems with electromagnetic interference show up. Since serial
transmission uses just one wire to transmit data it has fewer problems with noise, allowing it to use
very high clock rates, achieving a higher transfer rate.
Serial ATA standard transfer rate is of 1,500 Mbps. As it uses 8B/10B coding where each
group of eight bits is coded into a 10-bit number, its effective clock rate is of 150 MB/s. Serial
ATA devices running at this standard speed are also known as SATA-150. Serial ATA II provides
new features such as Native Command Queuing (NCQ), plus a higher speed rate of 300 MB/s.
Devices that can run at this speed are called SATA-300. The next standard to be released will be
SATA-600. It is important to notice that SATA II and SATA-300 are not synonyms. One can build
a device that runs only at 150 MB/s but using new features provided by SATA II such as NCQ.
This device would be a SATA II device, even though it doesn’t run at 300 MB/s. NCQ increases
the hard disk drive performance by reordering the commands send by the computer.
It is also very important to notice that Serial ATA implements two separated data paths, one for
transmitting and another for receiving data. On parallel design only one data path is available,
which is shared for both data transmission and reception. Serial ATA cable consists in two pair of
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wires (one for transmission and the other for reception) using differential transmission. Three
ground wires are also used, so Serial ATA cable has seven wires. Another advantage of using serial
transmission is that fewer wires need to be used. Parallel IDE ports use a 40-pin connector and 80-
wire flat cables. Serial ATA ports use a seven-pin connector and seven-wire cable. This helps a lot
on the thermal side of the computer, as using thinner cables makes air to flow easier inside the PC
case.
Features
Hotplug All SATA devices support hotplugging. However, proper hotplug
support requires the device be running in its native command mode not via IDE emulation,
which requires AHCI. Some of the earliest SATA host adapters were not capable of this
and furthermore some popular Operating Systems, such as Windows XP, still do not
support AHCI.
Advanced Host Controller Interface As their standard interface, SATA controllers
use the Advanced Host Controller Interface, allowing advanced features of SATA such as
hotplug and NCQ. If AHCI is not enabled by the motherboard and chipset, SATA
controllers typically operate in "IDE emulation" mode which does not allow features of
devices to be accessed if the ATA/IDE standard does not support them. Windows device
drivers that are labeled as SATA are usually running in IDE emulation mode unless they
explicitly state that they are AHCI. While the drivers included with Windows XP do not
support AHCI, AHCI has been implemented by proprietary device drivers. Windows Vista,
FreeBSD, Linux with kernel version 2.6.19 onward, as well as Solaris and OpenSolaris
have native support for AHCI.
Throughput The current SATA specifications detail data transfer rates as high as
6 GBits/s per device. SATA uses only 4 signal lines cables are more compact and cheaper
than PATA. SATA supports hot-swapping and NCQ.
Evolution
SATA 1.5 (First generation) First-generation SATA interfaces, now known as
SATA 1.5 communicates at a rate of 1.5 GBits/s. Taking 8b/10b encoding overhead into
account, they have an actual encoded transfer rate of 1.2 GBits/s. The theoretical burst
throughput of SATA 1.5 is similar to that of PATA/133, but newer SATA devices offer
enhancements such as NCQ which improve performance in a multitasking environment.
However, high-performance flash drives can transfer data at up to 201 MB/s, SATA 1.5
does not provide sufficient throughput for these drives. During the initial period after SATA
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1.5 finalization, adapter and drive manufacturers used a "bridge chip" to convert existing
PATA designs for use with the SATA interface. Bridged drives have a SATA connector,
may include either or both kinds of power connectors, and generally perform identically to
their PATA equivalents. Most lack support for some SATA-specific features such as NCQ.
Bridged products gradually gave way to native SATA products.
SATA 3 GBits/s (Second generation) Soon after the introduction of SATA 1.5Gbit/s,
a number of shortcomings emerged. At the application level SATA could handle only one
pending transaction at a time like PATA. The SCSI interface has long been able to accept
multiple outstanding requests and service them in the order which minimizes response time.
This feature, NCQ, was adopted as an optional supported feature for SATA 1.5 GBit/s and
SATA 3 GBit/s devices. First-generation SATA devices operated at best a little faster than
parallel ATA/133 devices. Subsequently, a 3 GBit/s signaling rate was added to the physical
layer (PHY layer), effectively doubling maximum data throughput from 150 MB/s to
300 MB/s. For mechanical hard drives, SATA 3 GBit/s transfer rate is expected to satisfy
drive throughput requirements for sometime, as the fastest mechanical drives barely saturate
a SATA 1.5 GBit/s link. A SATA data cable rated for 1.5 GBit/s will handle current
mechanical drives without any loss of sustained and burst data transfer performance.
However, high-performance flash drives are approaching SATA 3 GBit/s transfer rate.
Given the importance of backward compatibility between SATA 1.5 GBit/s controllers and
SATA 3 GBit/s devices, SATA 3 GBit/s auto-negotiation sequence is designed to fall back
to SATA 1.5 GBit/s speed when in communication with such devices. In practice, some
older SATA controllers do not properly implement SATA speed negotiation. Affected
systems require the user to set the SATA 3 GBit/s peripherals to 1.5 GBit/s mode, generally
through the use of a jumper, however some drives lack this jumper. Chipsets known to have
this fault include the VIA VT8237 and VT8237R Southbridge, and the VIA VT6420,
VT6421A and VT6421L standalone SATA controllers. SiS's 760 and 964 chipsets also
initially exhibited this problem, though it can be rectified with an updated SATA controller
ROM.
SATA II (committee renamed SATA-IO) Popular usage refers to the SATA 3 Gbit/s
specification as Serial ATA II (SATA II or SATA2), contrary to the wishes of the Serial ATA
International Organization (SATA-IO) which defines the standard. SATA II was originally
the name of a committee defining updated SATA standards, of which the 3 Gbit/s standard
was just one.
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SATA 6 GBits/s (Third generation) Serial ATA International Organization
presented the draft specification of SATA 6 GBit/s physical layer and ratified its physical
layer specification in 2008. The full 3.0 standard was released in 2009. While even the
fastest conventional hard disk drives can barely saturate the original SATA 1.5 GBit/s
bandwidth, Solid State Disk drives are close to saturating the SATA 3 Gbit/s limit at
250 MB/s net read speed. Ten channels of fast flash can actually reach well over 500 MB/s
with new ONFI drives, so a move from SATA 3 Gbit/s to SATA 6 Gbit/s would benefit the
flash read speeds. As for the standard hard disks, the reads from their built-in DRAM cache
will end up faster across the new interface. The new specification contains the following
changes:
o A new NCQ streaming command to enable Isochronous data transfers for
bandwidth-hungry audio and video applications.
o An NCQ Management feature that helps optimize performance by enabling host
processing and management of outstanding NCQ commands.
o Improved power management capabilities.
o A small Low Insertion Force (LIF) connector for more compact 1.8-inch storage
devices.
o A connector designed to accommodate 7 mm optical disk drives for thinner and
lighter notebooks.
o Alignment with the INCITS ATA8-ACS standard.
The enhancements are generally aimed at improving quality of service for video streaming and high
priority interrupts. In addition, the standard continues to support distances up to a meter. The new
speeds may require higher power consumption for supporting chips, factors that new process
technologies and power management techniques are expected to mitigate. The new specification
can use existing SATA cables and connectors, although some OEMs are expected to upgrade host
connectors for the higher speeds. Also, the new standard is backwards compatible with SATA 3
Gbit/s. In order to avoid parallels to the common SATA II misnomer, the SATA-IO has compiled a
set of marketing guidelines for the new specification. The specification should be called Serial ATA
International Organization: Serial ATA Revision 3.0, and the technology itself is to be referred to
as SATA 6 GBit/s. A product using this standard should be called the SATA 6 Gbit/s.
Cables and connectors
Connectors and cables present the most visible differences between SATA and PATA drives.
Unlike PATA, the same connectors are used on 3.5" SATA hard disks for desktop and server
computers and 2.5" disks for portable or small computers, this allows 2.5" drives to be used in
[Type text] Page 27
desktop computers with only a mounting bracket and no wiring adapter. There is a special
connector (eSATA) specified for external devices, and an optionally implemented provision for
clips to hold internal connectors firmly in place. SATA drives may be plugged into SAS controllers
and communicate on the same physical cable as native SAS disks, but SATA controllers cannot
handle SAS disks.
Serial ATA Data Connector
Pin Function The SATA standard defines a data cable with seven conductors (3 grounds
1 Ground and 4 active data lines in two pairs) and 8 mm wide wafer connectors on
2 A+
3 A- each end. SATA cables can have lengths up to 1 metre (3.3 ft), and connect
4 Ground one motherboard socket to one hard drive. SATA connectors and cables are
5 B-
6 B+ easier to fit in closed spaces and reduce obstructions to air cooling. They are
7 Ground more susceptible to accidental unplugging and breakage than PATA, but
cables can be purchased that have a locking feature, whereby a small spring holds the plug in the
socket. Designers use a number of techniques to reduce the undesirable effects of such
unintentional coupling. One such technique used in SATA links is differential signaling.
Serial ATA Power Connector
Pin Function The SATA standard specifies a different power connector than the
1 +3.3 V decades-old four-pin Molex connector found on pre-SATA devices.
2 +3.3 V
3 +3.3 V Like the data cable, it is wafer-based, but its wider 15-pin shape
4 Ground prevents accidental mis-identification and forced insertion of the
5 Ground
6 Ground wrong connector type. Native SATA devices favor the SATA
7 +5 V power-connector, although some early SATA drives retained older
8 +5 V
9 +5 V 4-pin Molex in addition to the SATA power connector. Adapters
10 Ground exist which can convert a 4-pin Molex connector to a SATA power
11 Reserved/Ground
connector. However, because the 4-pin Molex connectors do not
12 Ground
13 +12 V provide 3.3 V power, these adapters provide only 5 V and 12 V
14 +12 V
power and leave the 3.3 V lines unconnected. This precludes the use
15 +12 V
of such adapters with drives that require 3.3 V power.
SATA features more pins than the traditional power connector for several reasons:
A third voltage is supplied, 3.3 V, in addition to the traditional 5 V and 12 V.

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Each voltage transmits through three pins ganged together, because the small contacts by
themselves cannot supply sufficient current for some devices. (Each pin should be able to
provide 1.5 A.)
Five pins ganged together provide ground.
For each of the three voltages, one of the three pins serves for hotplugging. The ground pins
and power pins 3, 7, and 13 are longer on the plug (located on the SATA device) so they
will connect first. A special hot-plug receptacle (on the cable or a backplane) can connect
ground pins 4 and 12 first. Pin 11 can function for staggered spinup, activity indication, or
nothing. Staggered spinup is used to prevent many drives from spinning up simultaneously,
as this may draw too much power. Activity is an indication of whether the drive is busy, and
is intended to give feedback to the user through a LED.
Topology
SATA uses a point-to-point architecture. The connection between the controller and the storage
device is direct. Modern PC systems usually have a SATA controller on the motherboard, or
installed in a PCI or PCI Express slot. Most SATA controllers have multiple SATA ports and
can be connected to multiple storage devices. There are also port expanders or multipliers
which allow multiple storage devices to be connected to a single SATA controller port.
Encoding
These high-speed transmission protocols use a logic encoding known as 8b/10b encoding. The
signal uses non-return to zero (NRZ) encoding with LVDS. In the 8b/10b encoding the data
sequence includes the synchronizing signal. This technique is known as clock data recovery,
because it does not use a separate synchronizing signal. Instead, it uses the serial signal's 0 to 1
transitions to recover the clock signal.
Backward and forward compatibility
SATA and PATA
At the device level, SATA and PATA (Parallel Advanced Technology Attachment) devices
remain completely incompatible they cannot be interconnected. At the application level, SATA
devices can be specified to look and act like PATA devices. Many motherboards offer a "legacy
mode" option which makes SATA drives appear to the OS like PATA drives on a standard
controller. This eases OS installation by not requiring a specific driver to be loaded during setup
[Type text] Page 29

but sacrifices support for some features of SATA and generally disables some of the boards'
PATA or SATA ports since the standard PATA controller interface only supports 4 drives. The
common heritage of the ATA command set has enabled the proliferation of low-cost PATA to
SATA bridge-chips. Bridge-chips were widely used on PATA drives (before the completion of
native SATA drives) as well as stand-alone "dongles." When attached to a PATA drive, a
device-side dongle allows the PATA drive to function as a SATA drive. Host-side dongles
allow a motherboard PATA port to function as a SATA host port. The market has produced
powered enclosures for both PATA and SATA drives which interface to the PC through USB,
Firewire or eSATA, with the restrictions noted above. PCI cards with a SATA connector exist
that allow SATA drives to connect to legacy systems without SATA connectors.
SATA 1.5 Gbit/s and SATA 3 Gbit/s
The designers of SATA aimed for backward and forward compatibility with future revisions of
the SATA standard. According to the hard drive manufacturer Maxtor, motherboard host
controllers using the VIA and SIS chipsets VT8237, VT8237R, VT6420, VT6421L, SIS760,
SIS964 found on the ECS 755-A2 manufactured in 2003, do not support SATA 3 Gbit/s drives.
Additionally, these host controllers do not support SATA 3 Gbit/s optical disc drives. To
address interoperability problems, the largest hard drive manufacturer, Seagate/Maxtor, has
added a user-accessible jumper-switch known as the Force 150, to switch between 150 MB/s
and 300 MB/s operation. Users with a SATA 1.5 Gbit/s motherboard with one of the listed
chipsets should either buy an ordinary SATA 1.5 Gbit/s hard disk, buy a SATA 3 Gbit/s hard
disk with the user-accessible jumper, or buy a PCI or PCI-E card to add full SATA 3 Gbit/s
capability and compatibility. Western Digital uses a jumper setting called OPT1 Enabled to
force 150 MB/s data transfer speed. OPT1 is used by putting the jumper on pins 5 & 6.
Comparisons with other interfaces
SATA and SCSI
SCSI currently offers transfer rates higher than SATA, but it uses a more complex bus, usually
resulting in higher manufacturing costs. SCSI buses also allow connection of several drives
(using multiple channels, 7 or 15 on each channel), whereas SATA allows one drive per
channel, unless using a port multiplier.
SATA 3 Gbit/s offers a maximum bandwidth of 300 MB/s per device compared to SCSI
with a maximum of 320 MB/s. Also, SCSI drives provide greater sustained throughput than
[Type text] Page 30
SATA drives because of disconnect-reconnect and aggregating performance. SATA devices
generally link compatibly to SAS enclosures and adapters, while SCSI devices cannot be
directly connected to a SATA bus.
SCSI, SAS and fibre-channel (FC) drives are typically more expensive so they are
traditionally used in servers and disk arrays where the added cost is justifiable. Inexpensive
ATA and SATA drives evolved in the home-computer market, hence there is a view that
they are less reliable. As those two worlds overlapped, the subject of reliability became
somewhat controversial. Note that, generally, the failure rate of a disk drive is related to the
quality of its heads, platters and supporting manufacturing processes, not to its interface.
SATA in comparison to other buses
Raw Transfer
Power Devices per
Name bandwidth speed Max. cable length (m)
provided Channel
(MBit/s) (MB/s)
2 with eSATA HBA 1 (15 with port
eSATA 3,000 300 No
(1 with passive adapter) multiplier)
1 (15 with port
SATA 300 3,000 300 1 No
multiplier)
SATA 150 1,500 150 1 No 1 per line
PATA 133 1,064 133 0.46 (18 in) No 2
1 (16k with
SAS 300 3,000 300 8 No
expanders)
1 (16k with
SAS 150 1,500 150 8 No
expanders)
FireWire 100; alternate cables 15 W, 12–
3,144 393 63 (with hub)
3200 available for >100 m 25 V
FireWire 15 W, 12–
786 98.25 100 63 (with hub)
800 25 V
FireWire 15 W, 12–
393 49.13 4.5 63 (with hub)
400 25 V
USB 3.0 5,000 625 3 4.5 W, 5 V 127 (with hub)
USB 2.0 480 60 5 2.5 W, 5 V 127 (with hub)
Ultra-320 15 (plus the
2,560 320 12 No
SCSI HBA)
Fibre
126
Channel
10,520 2,000 2–50,000 No (16,777,216
over optic
with switches)
fiber
Fibre
126
Channel
4,000 400 12 No (16,777,216
over copper
with switches)
cable
5 (copper) 1 with point to
InfiniBand
point
12× Quad- 120,000 12,000 No
Many with
rate <10,000 (fiber) switched fabric
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Port Multiplier
Port Multiplier is a device that expands the number of devices to be installed on a single SATA
port. Port multiplier has several applications, like allowing a home user to install more than one
hard. Using port multiplier it is possible to connect them using fewer cables. For example, one port
multiplier connected to one SATA port allows you to connect up to 15 hard disk drives to it. And
you would have only one cable connecting the rack to the server. But there is a huge performance
issue here. If a SATA-150 port were used, the 150 MB/s bandwidth would have to be split between
15 devices, creating a huge bottleneck. To solve this issue another approach may be used. Instead
of using only one port multiplier chip, you could use four of them, connecting the rack to the server
using four cables (instead of 16). The maximum transfer rate between the server and the rack would
be of 600 MB/s (4x 150 MB/s) if SATA-150
ports were used or of 1,200 MB/s (4x 300
MB/s) if SATA-300 were used. Inside the
rack, you could install up to 60 hard disk
drives (15 x 4), but for optimal performance
you should install four hard disk drives to
each port multiplier chip, matching your 16
drives.
Block to explain Multi port HDD SATA
SATA Power Cable
Port Multiplier Card
eSATA and SATA cable
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Serial Attached SCSI
A typical Serial Attached SCSI system consists of the following basic components:
1. Initiator: a device that originates device-service and task-management requests for

processing by a target device and receives responses for the same requests from other target
devices. Initiators may be provided as an on-board component on the motherboard (as is the
case with many server-oriented motherboards) or as an add-on host bus adapter.
2. Target: a device containing logical units and target ports that receives device service and
task management requests for processing and sends responses for the same requests to
initiator devices. A target device could be a hard disk or a disk array system.
3. Service Delivery Subsystem: the part of an I/O system that transmits information between
an initiator and a target. Typically cables connecting an initiator and target with or without
expanders and backplanes constitute a service delivery subsystem.
4. Expanders: devices that form part of a service delivery subsystem and facilitate
communication between SAS devices. Expanders facilitate the connection of multiple SAS
End devices to a single initiator port.
SAS v/s Parallel SCSI
The SAS bus operates point-to-point while the SCSI bus is multidrop. Each SAS device is
connected by a dedicated link to the initiator, unless an expander is used. If one initiator is
connected to one target, there is no opportunity for contention, with parallel SCSI, even this
situation could cause contention.
SAS has no termination issues and does not require terminator packs like parallel SCSI.
SAS eliminates clock skew.
SAS supports up to 16,384 devices through the use of expanders, while Parallel SCSI has a
limit of 8 or 16 devices on a single channel.
SAS supports a higher transfer speed (3 or 6 GBit/s) than most parallel SCSI standards.
SAS achieves these speeds on each initiator-target connection, hence getting higher
throughput, whereas parallel SCSI shares the speed across the entire multidrop bus.
SAS controllers may support connecting to SATA devices, either directly connected using
native SATA protocol or through SAS expanders using SATA Tunneled Protocol (STP).
Both SAS and parallel SCSI use the SCSI command-set.
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SAS v/s SATA
Systems identify SATA devices by their port number connected to the host bus adapter,
while SAS devices are uniquely identified by their World Wide Name (WWN).
SAS protocol supports multiple initiators in a SAS domain, while SATA has no analogous
provision.
Most SAS drives provide tagged command queuing, while most newer SATA drives
provide native command queuing, each of which has its pros and cons.
SATA follows the ATA command set and thus only supports hard drives and CD/DVD
drives. In theory, SAS also supports numerous other devices including scanners and
printers. However, this advantage could also be moot, as most such devices have also found
alternative paths via such buses as USB, IEEE 1394 (FireWire), and Ethernet.
SAS hardware allows multipath I/O to devices while SATA (prior to SATA 3Gb/s) does
not. Per specification, SATA 3Gb/s makes use of port multipliers to achieve port expansion.
Some port multiplier manufacturers have implemented multipath I/O using port multiplier
hardware.
SATA is marketed as a general-purpose successor to parallel ATA and has become
common in the consumer market, whereas the more-expensive SAS targets critical server
applications.
SAS error-recovery and error-reporting use SCSI commands which have more functionality
than the ATA SMART commands used by SATA drives.
SAS uses higher signaling voltages (800-1600 mV TX, 275-1600 mV RX) than SATA
(400-600 mV TX, 325-600 mV RX). The higher voltage offers (among other features) the
ability to use SAS in server backplanes.
Because of its higher signaling voltages, SAS can use cables up to 8 m (26 ft) long, SATA
has a cable-length limit of 1 m (3 ft).
SAS Protocols
SAS uses a few protocols to deal with a few different type of traffic flowing through it. It is worth
mentioning them here because they are used a lot in talking about SAS.
SSP stands for ―Serial SCSI Protocol‖ which encapsulates "legacy" SCSI commands and data for
transmission between nodes. For example, if node "x" sends node "y" a command to "read data
block 54", and node "y" sends back the data from that disk block, this transaction is done with SSP,
which encapsulates the SCSI Command Block (CDB), the data, the "sense data" (error data, if
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needed), and other basic information which is used in any SCSI transaction, parallel, serial, legacy,
whatever.
SMP stands for "SAS Management Protocol". It is used only by expanders and initiators (hosts).
SMP provides a set of very simple commands to allow initiators and expanders to query
information from each other. This is only done at start-up, or when a devices is added or removed
from the bus. SMP is used to allow the initiator/host to discover what devices are on the SAS bus,
so it may assign SCSI IDs to them and present them to the host. It is also used to allow the
expanders to see what devices (WWNs) are connected off which ports of other expanders, so they
will know how to open routes to different devices/WWNs. This sharing of information between
initiators and expanders whenever the bus is new or changed, is called "discovery". It is simply,
everyone asking their neighbors about who their neighbors are and collecting everyone’s addresses
so ,for example, expanders will know through which port messages to different addresses should be
routed.
STP stands for "SAS Tunneling Protocol". This is simply the mechanism that a SAS topology uses
to talk to, and route commands from/to SATA (Serial-ATA) devices. SATA devices use a wire
level signaling that it somewhat similar to SAS, but outside of that, are quite different. SATA
devices can be connected to a SAS topology however, and STP is used to tunnel this different data
from a host, through the SAS network, to a SATA device.
Architecture
SAS architecture consists of six layers:
Physical layer:
o defines electrical and physical characteristics
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o differential signaling transmission
o Three connector types:
 SFF 8482 – SATA compatible
 SFF 8484 – up to four devices
 SFF 8470 – external connector (InfiniBand connector), up to four devices
PHY Layer:
o 8b/10b data encoding
o Link initialization, speed negotiation and reset sequences
o Link capabilities negotiation (SAS-2)
Link layer:
o Insertion and deletion of primitives for clock-speed disparity matching
o Primitive encoding
o Data scrambling for reduced EMI
o Establish and tear down native connections between SAS targets and initiators
o Establish and tear down tunneled connections between SAS initiators and SATA
targets connected to SAS expanders
o Power management (proposed for SAS-2.1)
Port layer:
o Combining multiple PHYs with the same addresses into wide ports
Transport layer:
o Supports three transport protocols:
 Serial SCSI Protocol (SSP): supports SAS devices
 Serial ATA Tunneled Protocol (STP): supports SATA devices attached to
SAS expanders
 Serial Management Protocol (SMP): provides for the configuration of SAS
expanders
Application layer
SAS Expanders
The components known as Serial Attached SCSI Expanders (SAS Expanders) facilitate
communication between large numbers of SAS devices. Expanders contain two or more external
expander-ports. Each expander device contains at least one SAS Management Protocol target port
for management and may contain SAS devices itself. For example, an expander may include a
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Serial SCSI Protocol target port for access to a peripheral device. There are two different types of
expander: Edge Expanders and Fanout Expanders.
An edge expander allows for communication with up to 128 SAS addresses, allowing the
SAS initiator to communicate with these additional devices. Edge expanders can do direct
table routing and subtractive routing. Without a fanout expander, we can use at most two
edge expanders in our delivery subsystem
A fanout expander can connect up to 128 sets of edge expanders, known as an edge
expander device set, allowing for even more SAS devices to be addressed. The subtractive
routing port of each edge expanders will be connected to the phys of fanout expander. A
fanout expander can not do subtractive routing, it can only forward subtractive routing
requests to the connected edge expanders.
Connectors
The SAS connector is much smaller than traditional parallel SCSI connectors, allowing for the
small 2.5-inch (64 mm) drives. SAS currently supports point data transfer speeds up to 6 Gbit/s, but
is expected to reach 12 GBit/s in near future
SFF 8482,SATA connector, Internal

connector ,connected with 1 device, Form-
factor compatible with SATA: allows for
SATA drives to connect to a SAS backplane, which obviates the need to install an additional SATA
controller just to attach a DVD-writer, for example. Note that SAS drives are not usable on a SATA
bus and have their physical connector keyed to prevent any plugging into a SATA backplane.
SFF 8484,Internal connector with 32 pins and can be connected to 4

devices, Hi-density internal connector, 2 and 4 lane versions are defined
by the SFF standard.
SFF 8470,Infiniband connector is an External connector with 32 pins and

can be connected to 4 devices, Hi-density external connector (also used as
an internal connector)
SFF 8088,External mini-SAS, External mSAS connector with 26 pins and
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can be connected to 4 devices, Molex iPASS reduced width external 4× connector with future
10 Gbit/s support
External Device Interfaces
External Devices can be interfaced using interfacing technologies like Parallel Port (LPT), Serial
port USB and PS/2 connectors; the following describes them.
Parallel Port (LPT)
A parallel port is a type of interface found on computers (personal and otherwise) for connecting
various peripherals. It is also known as a printer port or Centronics port. The Parallel Port is the
most commonly used port for interfacing home made projects. This port will allow the input of up
to 9 bits or the output of 12 bits at any one given time, thus requiring minimal external circuitry to
implement many simpler tasks. The port is composed of 4 control lines, 5 status lines and 8 data
lines. It's found commonly on the back PC as a D-Type 25 Pin female connector. There may also be
a D-Type 25 pin male connector. This will be a serial RS-232 port and thus, is a totally
incompatible port. Parallel port works in 5 modes which are as follows,
1. Compatibility Mode.
2. Nibble Mode. (Protocol not Described in this Document)
3. Byte Mode. (Protocol not Described in this Document)
4. EPP Mode (Enhanced Parallel Port).
5. ECP Mode (Extended Capabilities Mode).
The aim was to design new drivers and devices which were compatible with each other and also
backwards compatible with the Standard Parallel Port (SPP). Compatibility, Nibble & Byte modes
use just the standard hardware available on the original Parallel Port cards while EPP & ECP
modes require additional hardware which can run at faster speeds, while still being downwards
compatible with the Standard Parallel Port. Compatibility mode or "Centronics Mode" as it is
commonly known, can only send data in the forward direction at a typical speed of 50 Kbytes/sec
but can be as high as 150+ Kbytes/sec. In order to receive data, you must change the mode to either
Nibble or Byte mode. Nibble mode can input a nibble (4 bits) in the reverse direction. E.g. from
device to computer. Byte mode uses the Parallel's bi-directional feature (found only on some cards)
to input a byte (8 bits) of data in the reverse direction. Extended and Enhanced Parallel Ports use
additional hardware to generate and manage handshaking. To output a byte to a printer (or anything
in that matter) using compatibility mode, the software must,
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1. Write the byte to the Data Port.
2. Check to see is the printer is busy. If the printer is busy, it will not accept any
data, thus any data which is written will be lost.
3. Take the Strobe (Pin 1) low. This tells the printer that there is the correct data on
the data lines. (Pins 2-9)
4. Put the strobe high again after waiting approximately 5 microseconds after
putting the strobe low. (Step 3)
This limits the speed at which the port can run at. The EPP & ECP ports get around this by letting
the hardware check to see if the printer is busy and generate a strobe and /or appropriate
handshaking. This means only one I/O instruction need to be performed, thus increasing the speed.
These ports can output at around 1-2 megabytes per second. The ECP port also has the advantage
of using DMA channels and FIFO buffers, thus data can be shifted around without using I/O
instructions.
Hardware Properties
Below is a table of the "Pin Outs" of the D-Type 25 Pin connector and the Centronics 34 Pin
connector. The D-Type 25 pin connector is the most common connector found on the Parallel Port
of the computer, while the Centronics Connector is commonly found on printers. The IEEE 1284
standard however specifies 3 different connectors for use with the Parallel Port. The first one, 1284
Type A is the D-Type 25 connector found on the back of most computers. The 2nd is the 1284
Type B which is the 36 pin Centronics Connector found on most printers.
Pin No Pin No SPP Signal Directio Registe

(D-Type (Centronic n In/out r
25) s)
1 1 nStrobe In/Out Control
2 2 Data 0 Out Data
3 3 Data 1 Out Data
4 4 Data 2 Out Data
5 5 Data 3 Out Data
6 6 Data 4 Out Data
7 7 Data 5 Out Data
8 8 Data 6 Out Data
9 9 Data 7 Out Data
10 10 nAck In Status
11 11 Busy In Status
12 12 Paper-Out / In Status
Paper-End
13 13 Select In Status
14 14 nAuto-Linefeed In/Out Control
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15 32 nError / nFault In Status The output of the Parallel Port is
16 31 nInitialize In/Out Control normally TTL logic levels. The
17 36 nSelect-Printer / In/Out Control
nSelect-In voltage levels are the easy part.
18 - 25 19-30 Ground Gnd The current you can sink and
source varies from port to port. Most Parallel Ports implemented in ASIC, can sink and
source around 12mA. However these are just some of the figures taken from Data sheets,
Sink/Source 6mA, Source 12mA/Sink 20mA, Sink 16mA/Source 4mA, Sink/Source 12mA.
Centronics
Centronics is an early standard for transferring data from a host to the printer. The majority of
printers use this handshake. This handshake is normally implemented using a Standard Parallel Port
under software control. Below is a simplified diagram of the `Centronics' Protocol.
Data is first applied on the Parallel Port pins 2 to

7. The host then checks to see if the printer is
busy. i.e. the busy line should be low. The
program then asserts the strobe, waits a minimum
of 1uS, and then de-asserts the strobe. Data is
normally read by the printer/peripheral on the
rising edge of the strobe. The printer will indicate
that it is busy processing data via the Busy line. Once the printer has accepted data, it will
acknowledge the byte by a negative pulse about 5uS on the nAck line.Quite often the host will
ignore the nAck line to save time. Latter in the Extended Capabilities Port, the hardware do all the
handshaking for you. All the programmer must do is write the byte of data to the I/O port. The
hardware will check to see if the printer is busy, generate the strobe. Note that this mode commonly
doesn't check the nAck either.
Port Addresses
The Parallel Port has three commonly used base addresses. The 3BCh base address was originally
introduced used for Parallel Ports on early Video Cards. This address then disappeared for a while,
when Parallel Ports were later removed from Video Cards. They has now reappeared as an option
for Parallel Ports integrated onto motherboards, upon which their configuration can be changed
using BIOS. LPT1 is normally assigned base address 378h, while LPT2 is assigned 278h. 378h &
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278h have always been commonly used for Parallel Ports. These addresses may change from
machine to machine.
Address Notes:
3BCh - 3BFh Used for Parallel Ports which were incorporated on to
Video Cards - Doesn't support ECP addresses
378h - 37Fh Usual Address For LPT 1
278h - 27Fh Usual Address For LPT 2
When the computer is first turned on, BIOS (Basic Input/Output System) will determine the
number of ports you have and assign device labels LPT1, LPT2 & LPT3 to them. BIOS first looks
at address 3BCh. If a Parallel Port is found here, it is assigned as LPT1, then it searches at location
378h. If a Parallel card is found there, it is assigned the next free device label. This would be LPT1
if a card wasn't found at 3BCh or LPT2 if a card was found at 3BCh. The last port of call, is 278h
and follows the same procedure than the other two ports. Therefore it is possible to have a LPT2
which is at 378h and not at the expected address 278h. What can make this even confusing, is that
some manufacturers of Parallel Port Cards, have jumpers which allow you to set your Port to LPT1,
LPT2, LPT3. Now what address is LPT1? - On the majority of cards LPT1 is 378h, and LPT2,
278h, but some will use 3BCh as LPT1, 378h as LPT1 and 278h as LPT2. The assigned devices
LPT1, LPT2 & LPT3 should not be a worry to people wishing to interface devices to their PC's.
Most of the time the base address is used to interface the port rather than LPT1 etc. However to
find the address of LPT1 or any of the Line Printer Devices, we can use a lookup table provided by
BIOS.
Start Address Function

0000:0408 LPT1's Base Address
0000:040A LPT2's Base Address
0000:040C LPT3's Base Address
0000:040E LPT4's Base Address (Note 1)
Parallel Port Modes in BIOS
Today, most Parallel Ports are multimode ports. They are normally software configurable to one of
many modes from BIOS. The following modes are configurable via BIOS. The typical modes are,
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Printer Mode
Standard & Bi-directional (SPP) Mode
EPP1.7 and SPP Mode
EPP1.9 and SPP Mode
ECP Mode
ECP and EPP1.7 Mode
ECP and EPP1.9 Mode
Printer Mode is the most basic mode. It is a Standard Parallel Port in forward mode only. It has no
bi-directional feature, thus Bit 5 of the Control Port will not respond. Standard & Bi-directional
(SPP) Mode is the bi-directional mode. Using this mode, bit 5 of the Control Port will reverse the
direction of the port, so you can read back a value on the data lines.
EPP1.7 and SPP Mode is a combination of EPP 1.7 (Enhanced Parallel Port) and SPP Modes. In
this mode of operation you will have access to the SPP registers (Data, Status and Control) and
access to the EPP Registers. In this mode you should be able to reverse the direction of the port
using bit 5 of the control register. EPP 1.7 is the earlier version of EPP.
EPP1.9 and SPP Mode is just like the previous mode, only it uses EPP Version 1.9 this time. As in
the other mode, you will have access to the SPP registers, including Bit 5 of the control port.
However this differs from EPP1.7 and SPP Mode as you should have access to the EPP Timeout
bit.
ECP Mode will give you an Extended Capabilities Port. The mode of this port can then be set using
the ECP's Extended Control Register (ECR). However in this mode from BIOS the EPP Mode
(100) will not be available.
ECP and EPP1.7 Mode and ECP and EPP1.9 Mode will give you an Extended Capabilities Port,
just like the previous mode. However the EPP Mode in the ECP's ECR will now be available.
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Pin configuration
LPT Male and Female cable
Serial Port
Serial port is a serial communication physical interface through which information transfers in or
out one bit at a time (contrast parallel port). While such interfaces as Ethernet, FireWire, and USB
all send data as a serial stream, the term "serial port" usually identifies hardware more or less
compliant to the RS-232 standard, intended to interface with a modem or with a similar
communication device. For its use to connect peripheral devices, the serial port has largely been
replaced by USB and Firewire. For networking, it has been replaced by Ethernet. Serial ports are
commonly still used in legacy applications such as industrial automation systems, scientific
analysis, shop till systems and some industrial and consumer products. Network equipment (such as
routers and switches) often use serial console for configuration. Serial ports are still used in these
areas as they are simple, cheap and their console functions (RS-232) are highly standardized and
widespread. The vast majority of computer systems have a serial port, however it must usually be
wired manually and sometimes there are no pins in the manufactured version.
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Hardware
Some computers, such as the IBM PC, used an integrated circuit called a UART, that converted
characters to (and from) asynchronous serial form, and automatically looked after the timing and
framing of data. Very low-cost systems, such as some early home computers, would instead use the
CPU to send the data through an output pin, using the so-called bit-banging technique. Many
personal computer motherboards still have at least one serial port. Small-form-factor systems and
laptops may omit RS-232 connector ports to conserve space, but the electronics are still there. RS-
232 has been standard for so long that the circuits needed to control a serial port became very cheap
and often exist on a single chip, sometimes also with circuitry for a parallel port. Early home
computers often had proprietary serial ports with pinouts and voltage levels incompatible with RS-
232. Inter-operation with RS-232 devices may be impossible as the serial port cannot withstand the
voltage levels produced and may have other differences that "lock in" the user to products of a
particular manufacturer. Low-cost processors now allow higher-speed, but more complex, serial
communication standards such as USB and FireWire to replace RS-232. These make it possible to
connect devices that would not have operated feasibly over slower serial connections, such as mass
storage, sound, and video devices.
Connectors
While the RS-232 standard originally specified a 25-pin D-type connector, many designers of
personal computers chose to implement only a subset of the full standard: they traded off
compatibility with the standard against the use of less costly and more compact connectors (in
particular the DE-9 version used by the original IBM PC-AT). Starting around the time of the
introduction of the IBM PC-AT, serial ports were commonly built with a 9-pin connector to save
cost and space. However, presence of a nine pin D-subminiature connector is neither necessary nor
sufficient to indicate use of a serial port, since this connector was also used for video, joysticks, and
other purposes. Some miniaturized electronics, particularly graphing calculators and to a lesser
extent hand-held amateur and two-way radio equipment, have serial ports using a jack plug
connector, usually the smaller 2.5 or 3.5 mm connectors and use the most basic 3-wire interface.
Many models of Macintosh favored the related (but faster) RS-422 standard, mostly using German
Mini-DIN connectors, except in the earliest models. The Macintosh included a standard set of two
ports for connection to a printer and a modem, but some PowerBook laptops had only one
combined port to save space.
Pinouts
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The following table lists commonly-used RS-232 signals and pin assignments
Signal Origin DB-25 DE-9

Name Abbreviation DTE DCE (TIA-574)
Common Ground G 7 5
Protective Ground PG 1 -
Transmitted Data TxD ● 2 3
Received Data RxD ● 3 2
Data Terminal Ready DTR ● 20 4
Data Set Ready DSR ● 6 6
Request To Send RTS ● 4 7
Clear To Send CTS ● 5 8
Carrier Detect DCD ● 8 1
Ring Indicator RI ● 22 9
Signals
Transmitted Data (TxD) Data sent from DTE to DCE.
Received Data (RxD) Data sent from DCE to DTE.
Request To Send (RTS) Asserted (set to logic 0, positive voltage) by DTE to prepare DCE to
receive data. This may require action on the part of the DCE, e.g. transmitting a carrier or reversing
the direction of a half-duplex channel. For the modern usage of "RTS/CTS handshaking," see the
section of that name.
Ready To Receive (RTR) Asserted by DTE to indicate to DCE that DTE is ready to receive data. If
in use, this signal appears on the pin that would otherwise be used for Request To Send, and the
DCE assumes that RTS is always asserted; see RTS/CTS handshaking for details.
Clear To Send (CTS) Asserted by DCE to acknowledge RTS and allow DTE to transmit. This
signaling was originally used with half-duplex modems and by slave terminals on multidrop lines:
The DTE would raise RTS to indicate that it had data to send, and the modem would raise CTS to
indicate that transmission was possible. For the modern usage of "RTS/CTS handshaking," see the
section of that name.
Data Terminal Ready (DTR) Asserted by DTE to indicate that it is ready to be connected. If the
DCE is a modem, this may "wake up" the modem, bringing it out of a power saving mode. This
behavior is seen quite often in modern PSTN and GSM modems. When this signal is de-asserted,
the modem may return to its standby mode, immediately hanging up any calls in progress.
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Data Set Ready (DSR) Asserted by DCE to indicate the DCE is powered on and is ready to
receive commands or data for transmission from the DTE. For example, if the DCE is a modem,
DSR is asserted as soon as the modem is ready to receive dialing or other commands; DSR is not
dependent on the connection to the remote DCE (see Data Carrier Detect for that function). If the
DCE is not a modem (e.g. a null modem cable or other equipment), this signal should be
permanently asserted (set to 0), possibly by a jumper to another signal.
Data Carrier Detect (DCD) Asserted by DCE when a connection has been established with remote
equipment.
Ring Indicator (RI) Asserted by DCE when it detects a ring signal from the telephone line.
Universal Serial Bus
A USB system has an asymmetric design, consisting of a host, a multitude of downstream USB
ports, and multiple peripheral devices connected in a tiered-star topology. Additional USB hubs
may be included in the tiers, allowing branching into a tree structure with up to five tier levels. A
USB host may have multiple host controllers and each host controller may provide one or more
USB ports. Up to 127 devices, including the hub devices, may be connected to a single host
controller. USB devices are linked in series through hubs. There always exists one hub known as
the root hub, which is built into the host controller. So-called sharing hubs, which allow multiple
computers to access the same peripheral device(s), also exist and work by switching access
between PCs, either automatically or manually. They are popular in small-office environments. In
network terms, they converge rather than diverge branches. A physical USB device may consist of
several logical sub-devices that are referred to as device functions. A single device may provide
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several functions, for example, a webcam (video device function) with a built-in microphone (audio
device function). Such a device is called a compound device in which each logical device is
assigned a distinctive address by the host and all logical devices are connected to a built-in hub to
which the physical USB wire is connected. A host assigns one and only one device address to a
function. USB device communication is based on pipes (logical channels). Pipes are connections
from the host controller to a logical entity on the device named an endpoint. The term endpoint is
occasionally used to incorrectly refer to the pipe because, while an endpoint exists on the device
permanently, a pipe is only formed when the host makes a connection to the endpoint. Therefore,
when referring to the connection between a host and an endpoint, the term pipe should be used. A
USB device can have up to 32 active pipes, 16 into the host controller and 16 out of the controller.
There are two types of pipes: stream and message pipes. A stream pipe is a uni-directional pipe
connected to a uni-directional endpoint that is used for bulk, interrupt, and isochronous data flow
while a message pipe is a bi-directional pipe connected to a bi-directional endpoint that is
exclusively used for control data flow. An endpoint is made into the USB device by the
manufacturer, and therefore, exists permanently. An endpoint of a pipe is addressable with tuple
(device_address, endpoint_number) as specified in a TOKEN packet that the host sends when it
wants to start a data transfer session. If the direction of the data transfer is from the host to the
endpoint, an OUT packet, which is a specialization of a TOKEN packet, having the desired device
address and endpoint number is sent by the host. If the direction of the data transfer is from the
device to the host, the host sends an IN packet instead. If the destination endpoint is a uni-
directional endpoint whose manufacturer's designated direction does not match the TOKEN packet
(e.g., the manufacturer's designated direction is IN while the TOKEN packet is an OUT packet), the
TOKEN packet will be ignored. Otherwise, it will be accepted and the data transaction can start. A
bi-directional endpoint, on the other hand, accepts both IN and OUT packets. Endpoints are
grouped into interfaces and each interface is associated with a single device function. An exception
to this is endpoint zero, which is used for device configuration and which is not associated with any
interface. A single device function comprises of independently controlled interfaces is called a
composite device. A composite device only has a single device address because the host only
assigns a device address to a function. When a USB device is first connected to a USB host, the
USB device enumeration process is started. The enumeration starts by sending a reset signal to the
USB device. The speed of the USB device is determined during the reset signaling. After reset, the
USB device's information is read by the host, then the device is assigned a unique 7-bit address. If
the device is supported by the host, the device drivers needed for communicating with the device
are loaded and the device is set to a configured state. If the USB host is restarted, the enumeration
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process is repeated for all connected devices. The host controller directs traffic flow to devices, so
no USB device can transfer any data on the bus without an explicit request from the host controller.
In USB 2.0, the host controller polls the bus for traffic, usually in a round-robin fashion. The
slowest device connected to a controller sets the speed of the interface. For SuperSpeed USB (USB
3.0), connected devices can request service from host, and because there are two separate
controllers in each USB 3.0 host, USB 3.0 devices will transmit and receive at USB 3.0 speeds,
regardless of USB 2.0 or earlier devices connected to that host. Operating speeds for them will be
set in the legacy manner.
PinOut
Pin Signal Color Description

1 VCC Red +5V
2 D- White Data -
3 D+ Green Data +
4 GND Black Ground
Glossary
Direct Attached Storage (DAS) refers to a digital storage system directly attached to a server or
workstation, without a storage network in between. DAS system is made of a data storage device
connected directly to a computer through a host bus adapter. Between those two points there is no
network device (like hub, switch, or router), and this is the main characteristic of DAS. The main
protocols used for DAS connections are ATA, SATA, SCSI, SAS, and Fibre Channel. A DAS
device can be shared between multiple computers, if only it provides multiple interfaces (ports) that
allow concurrent and direct access. This way it can be usable for computer clusters. DAS can
enable storage capacity extension, while keeping high data bandwidth and access rate.
Network Attached Storage (NAS) is essentially a self-contained computer connected to a

network, with the sole purpose of supplying file-based data storage services to other devices on the
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network. The unit is not designed to carry out general-purpose computing tasks, although it may
technically be possible to run other software on it. NAS units usually do not have a keyboard or
display, and are controlled and configured over the network, often by connecting a browser to their
network address. The alternative to NAS storage on a network is to use a computer as a file server.
In its most basic form a dedicated file server is no more than a NAS unit with keyboard and display
and an operating system which, while optimised for providing storage services, can run other tasks.
Despite differences SAN and NAS are not exclusive and may be combined in one solution: SAN-
NAS hybrid.
Storage Area Network (SAN) is a high-speed special-purpose network (or sub-network) that
interconnects different kinds of data storage devices with associated data servers on behalf of a
larger network of users. Typically, a storage area network is part of the overall network of
computing resources for an enterprise. A storage area network is usually clustered in close
proximity to other computing resources such as IBM z990 mainframes but may also extend to
remote locations for backup and archival storage, using wide area network carrier technologies
such as ATM or SONET.
INCITS International Committee for Information Technology Standards, is an ANSI-accredited

forum of IT developers. It was formerly known as the X3 and NCITS.INCITS technical standard
groups and technical committees have provided many popular standards, among them are T10 -
SCSI, T11 (X3T9.3) - Fibre Channel and T13 - AT Attachment. INCITS coordinates technical
standards activity between ANSI in the USA and joint ISO/IEC committees worldwide. This
provides a mechanism to create standards that will be implemented in many nations.
UDMA (with CRC) or Ultra Direct Memory Access was double transition clocking. Before Ultra
DMA, one transfer of data occurred on each clock cycle, triggered by the rising edge of the
interface clock (or "strobe"). With Ultra DMA, data is transferred on both the rising and falling
edges of the clock. Ultra DMA also introduced the use of cyclical redundancy checking or CRC on
the interface. The device sending data uses the CRC algorithm to calculate redundant information
from each block of data sent over the interface. This "CRC code" is sent along with the data. On the
other end of the interface, the recipient of the data does the same CRC calculation and compares its
result to the code the sender delivered. If there is a mismatch, this means data was corrupted
somehow and the block of data is resent. If errors occur frequently, the system may determine that
there are hardware issues and thus drop down to a slower Ultra DMA mode, or even disable Ultra
DMA operation.
Memory Unit Conversion Table
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Decimal Symbol Name Binary Equivalent
103 K Kilo 210=1024
106 M Mega 220=1024 K
109 G Giga 230=1024 M
1012 T Tera 240=1024 G
1015 P Peta 250=1024 T
1018 E Exa 260=1024 P
1021 Z Zetta 270=1024 E
1024 Y Yotta 280=1024 Z
SCA Serial Connector Attachment, is a type of connection for the internal cabling of SCSI
systems. There are two versions of this connector: the SCA-1, which is deprecated, and SCA-2,
which is currently in use in most systems. In addition there are Single-Ended (SE) and Low
Voltage Differential (LVD) types of the SCA.
RAID Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks is a technology that allowed computer users to
achieve high levels of storage reliability from low-cost and less reliable PC-class disk-drive
components, via the technique of arranging the devices into arrays for redundancy."RAID" is now
used as an umbrella term for computer data storage schemes that can divide and replicate data
among multiple hard disk drives.
ST-506 was the first 5.25 inch hard disk drive. Introduced in 1980 by Seagate Technology, it
stored up to 5 MB. The similar 10 MB ST-412 was introduced in late 1981 with enhanced bit rates.
ESDI or Enhanced Small Disk Interface was a disc interface designed by Maxtor Corporation in
the early 1980s to be a follow-on to the ST-506 interface. ESDI used the same cabling as ST-506
and could handle data rates of 10, 15, or 20 MBits/sec (as opposed to ST-506's top speed of 7.5
megabits), and many high-end SCSI drives of the era were actually high-end ESDI drives with
SCSI bridges integrated on the drive.
Hot swapping and hot plugging are terms used to separately describe the functions of replacing
system components without shutting down the system. Hot swapping describes changing
components without significant interruption to the system, while hot plugging describes changing
or adding components which interact with the operating system. Both terms describe the ability to
remove and replace components of a machine, usually a computer, while it is operating. For hot
swapping once the appropriate software is installed on the computer, a user can plug and unplug the
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component without rebooting. A well-known example of this functionality is the Universal Serial
Bus (USB) that allows users to add or remove peripheral components such as a mouse, keyboard,
or printer.
Native Command Queuing (NCQ) is a technology designed to increase performance of SATA

hard disks under certain situations by allowing the individual hard disk to internally optimize the
order in which received read and write commands are executed. This can reduce the amount of
unnecessary drive head movement, resulting in increased performance for workloads where
multiple simultaneous read/write requests are outstanding, most often occurring in server-type
applications.
Peripheral Component Interconnect(PCI) is a computer bus for attaching hardware devices in a

computer. These devices can take either the form of an integrated circuit fitted onto the
motherboard itself or a card fitted with motherboard. Typical PCI cards used in PCs include
network cards, sound cards, modems, extra ports such as USB or serial, TV tuner cards and disk
controllers.
Open NAND Flash Interface (ONFI) are the small n very fast drives for storage.
Low Insertion Force connectors are High-density metric (HDM) connectors from Molex are
designed for board-to-board connection in applications such as networking, high-end computing
and telecommunications equipment. HDM connectors offer a unique combination of robust
mechanical performance, high speed and high-density signal capability.
MultiDrop BUS is a computer bus in which all components are connected to the same set of
electrical wires. A process of arbitration determines which device gets the right to be the sender of
information at any point in time. The other devices must listen for the data that is intended to be
received by them.but electronically are limited to around 200–400 MHz (because of reflections on
the wire from the printed circuit board (PCB) onto the die) and 10–20 cm distance (SCSI-1 has 6
metres). Multidrop standards such as PCI are therefore being replaced by point-to-point.
Backpane (or "backplane system") is a circuit board (usually a printed circuit board) that connects
several connectors in parallel to each other, so that each pin of each connector is linked to the same
relative pin of all the other connectors forming a computer bus.
Different Voltage/Logic levels
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Terms -
VCC: The voltage applied to the power pin(s). In most cases the voltage the device needs to operate at.
VIH: [Voltage Input High] The minimum positive voltage applied to the input which will be accepted by the
device as a logic high.
VIL: [Voltage Input Low] The maximum positive voltage applied to the input which will be accepted by the
device as a logic low.
VOL: [Voltage Output Low] The maximum positive voltage from an output which the device considers will
be accepted as the maximum positive low level.
VOH: [Voltage Output High] The maximum positive voltage from an output which the device considers will
be accepted as the minimum positive high level.
VT: [Threshold Voltage] The voltage applied to a device which is "transition-Operated", which cause the
device to switch. May also be listed as a '+' or '-' value.
RS232 logic level
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Different Data Transmission Protocols
SPECIFICATIONS RS232 RS423 RS422 RS485

Mode of Operation SINGLE SINGLE DIFFERENTIAL DIFFERENTIAL
-ENDED -ENDED
Total Number of Drivers and 1 1 1 DRIVER 32 DRIVER
Receivers on One Line (One DRIVER DRIVER 10 RECVR 32 RECVR
driver active at a time for RS485 1 RECVR 10
networks) RECVR
Maximum Cable Length 50 FT. 4000 FT. 4000 FT. 4000 FT.
Maximum Data Rate (40ft. - 20kb/s 100kb/s 10Mb/s-100Kb/s 10Mb/s-100Kb/s
4000ft. for RS422/RS485)
Maximum Driver Output Voltage +/-25V +/-6V -0.25V to +6V -7V to +12V
Driver Output Loaded +/-5V to +/-3.6V +/-2.0V +/-1.5V
Signal Level +/-15V
(Loaded Min.)
Driver Output Unloaded +/-25V +/-6V +/-6V +/-6V
Signal Level
(Unloaded Max)
Driver Load Impedance (Ohms) 3k to 7k >=450 100 54
Max. Driver Current Power On N/A N/A N/A +/-100uA
in High Z State
Max. Driver Current Power Off +/-6mA +/-100uA +/-100uA +/-100uA
in High Z State @ +/-2v
Slew Rate (Max.) 30V/uS Adjustable N/A N/A
Receiver Input Voltage Range +/-15V +/-12V -10V to +10V -7V to +12V
Receiver Input Sensitivity +/-3V +/-200mV +/-200mV +/-200mV
Receiver Input Resistance 3k to 7k 4k min. 4k min. >=12k
(Ohms), (1 Standard Load for
RS485)
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Attention!!
This is to kindly request to all the readers of this report that if they find any
faults in this report or if they append this report to make it better, they are
heartily welcomed for feedbacks and they are requested to please inform me
through my mail id and they may send me the new report on it as well.
This way we all can help to propagate the knowledge in this world of
science.
Please help me in this process…
Shubham Pandey
shubham_143_onnet@yahoo.com
[Type text] Page 54

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Interfacing

[Type text] Page 1

The work followed is original editing of mine (but

the information has been referred through many

internet sources) and has been conceived as the part

of the seminar report submitted to the institution.

This is to therefore kindly inform the viewers that

any information in this report should not be trusted

blindly and thus I am not responsible for any ill

consequences arising due to this.

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The demand for storage to be available anytime, anywhere is driving the

Parallel Advanced Technology Attachments (ATA)

Parallel ATA, commonly referred to as simply ―ATA‖, is an industry

Parallel Small Computer System Interface (SCSI)

Parallel SCSI, better known as ―SCSI‖, is a shared bus technology that

Fiber Channel (FC)

Fiber Channel serves two purposes. It is both a high-speed switched fabric

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Serial Advanced Technology Attachments II (SATA II)

SATA II is the second-generation SATA disk interface technology currently under

Serial Attached Small Computer System Interface (SAS)

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Maximum 100 MB/s 320 MB/s 4 GB/s 1.5GB/sec 3 GB/sec 3 GB/sec

Topology Shared bus Shared bus Arbitrated Point-to- Point-to- Point-to-

Command No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes

Hard Disk Desktop Enterprise Enterprise Desktop Desktop Enterprise

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ATA/ATAPI is an evolution of the AT Attachment Interface, which was itself

IDE and ATA-1

The second ATA interface

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AT Attachments Packet Interface (ATAPI)

Drive size limitations

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Parallel ATA interface

Blue: The blue connector attaches to the host (motherboard or controller).

(PATA connector cable side)

Pin Signal Description

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Two devices on one cable — speed impact

Parallel AT version details and features

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SCSI Type Speed Bus Pins Connector

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Bus-width ID width IDs available

Bus width SCSI ID priority (from highest to lowest)

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Pin configuration of 50 pin SCSI

Pin # Single Differential

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Pin configuration of 68 pin SCSI

Pin # Single Ended Differential

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Fibre Channel topologies

Multiple pairs of ports may communicate simultaneously in a loop.

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Media Type Speed (MByte/s) Transmitter Distance

200 1550 nm Long wave Laser 2 m - >50 km

200 0.5 m - 300m