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ebe3f986 DG |
1 | 3. General Description |
2 | ||
3 | The application environment for the AT Attachment is any computer which uses | |
4 | an AT Bus or 40-pin ATA interface. | |
5 | ||
6 | The AT Bus is a widely used and implemented interface for which a variety of | |
7 | peripherals have been manufactured. As a means of reducing size and cost, a | |
8 | class of products has emerged which embed the controller functionality in the | |
9 | drive. These new products utilize the AT Bus fixed disk interface protocol, | |
10 | and a subset of the AT bus. Because of their compatibility with existing AT | |
11 | hardware and software this interface quickly became a de facto industry | |
12 | standard. | |
13 | ||
14 | The purpose of the ATA standard is to define the de facto implementations. | |
15 | ||
16 | Software in the Operating System dispatches I/O (Input/Output) requests via | |
17 | the AT Bus to peripherals which respond to direct commands. | |
18 | ||
19 | 3.1 Structure | |
20 | ||
21 | This standard relies upon specifications of the mechanical and electrical | |
22 | characteristics of the AT Bus and a subset of the AT Bus specifically | |
23 | developed for the direct attachment of peripherals. | |
24 | ||
25 | Also defined are the methods by which commands are directed to peripherals, | |
26 | the contents of registers and the method of data transfers. | |
27 |