I had an idea! Will it work? lol

J

jagok1

n00b
Joined
Dec 1, 2003
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I was online chatting to a friend about SATA HD's, and then thought "Hey, what if I buy a SATA converter........can I use that on my cd-rw!?" Has anyone tried this? I dont' wanna go spend the money for it not to work......(or maybe i will) lol:p
 
Here is a quote from the first web page I found after I googled "does sata support atapi" Google...what a wonderful thing!

SATA controllers also support ATAPI devices. ATAPI devices are slow in comparison the devices such as hard drives, however the ability to use those small SATA cables in a machine rather than large ribbon cables is extremely appealing.

Once again I asked Silicon Image about the ability to attach DVD-ROM & CD-RW devices to a SATA controller using a converter/bridge, their response was as follows:

"If you use a SATA-IDE bridge using our SiI3611 chip, you will be able to connect to our SiI3112A since the 3611 has ATAPI support. Not all SATA-IDE bridges have ATAPI support. If it does not have ATAPI support, the bridge will not work with CDROMs, DVD drives, etc"

What we have learnt here is that attaching ATAPI devices to a SATA controller via a converter or bridge is possible, however there is a catch. Not only does the SATA controller itself have to support ATAPI devices, the converter/bridge also needs to support such devices.

Silicon Image mention their own 3611 chip which is used on various bridges/converters that do support ATAPI devices, as there is a difference and a need to support this standard I am guessing that not all bridges will support ATAPI devices. Before making your converter/bridge purchase you may want to check to see if it contains the Silicon Image 3611 chip, if not find out what is being used and check for ATAPI compatibility before purchase.

It is highly unlikely you'll do either the SATA controller or ATAPI device any damage by using a non-ATAPI compatible bridge, what is most likely is that the controller will simply fail to see the device.
Click to expand...
 
I guess that pretty much sums it up....small cables for everyone! too bad you can only do one drive per connection :(
 
Originally posted by rally9x
too bad you can only do one drive per connection :(
Click to expand...

currently....

SATA II

"The Working Group, this week announced progress on a number of Serial ATA II features, such as the Digital 1.1 specification (a batch of management routines between devices and hosts); Port Multiplier 1.1, which lets users connect a single host to many SATA drives and determine each device's status; and the Port Selector 1.0 specification, which allows two different hosts to connect to a device, a necessary capability for fully-redundant servers and backup solutions. "
 
Sweetness. Hopefully it doesn't slow down the devices too much being on the same line.
 
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