On Wed, Jul 11, 2001 at 12:07:50PM +0100, Colm Buckley mentioned:
> Unlike IDE, more than one device can be active at a time. Transfers
> between devices need not involve the controller at all.
Is this ever used in practice ? Or does something like "cp" still send it
to the host controller, and back out etc.
> Unlike IDE, devices can be dynamically added and removed.
I *loved* this on sparc. Plug in a new drive, run drvconfig - as long as
the bus was quiet, you didn't even have to reboot. Not recommended, of
course.
> Unlike IDE, commands can be queued up at the controller and the CPU
> need not become involved until they're all finished.
As of UDMA66, ATA supports tagged command queues. Not sure if the linux
drivers support them yet though.
> Basically, people who go on and on about how SCSI is better are
> sometimes just snobs repeating what they've been told, but at other
> times (like this), they're speaking from real experience. I wouldn't
> use IDE on a machine where disk I/O or ongoing maintenance was going
> to be anything other than an trifle.
Indeed. But, on a desktop, it's not worth the cost anymore.
Kate
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