NATA(4)

NAME
nata, acd, ad, afd, ast - generic ATA/ATAPI disk controller driver

SYNOPSIS
To compile this driver into the kernel, place the following lines in your kernel configuration file:

For ISA based ATA/ATAPI support:
device isa
device nata0 at isa? port IO_WD1 irq 14
device nata1 at isa? port IO_WD2 irq 15

For PCI based ATA/ATAPI support:
device pci
device nata

To support ATA compliant disk drives:
device natadisk

To support ATA software RAIDs:
device nataraid

To support ATAPI CDROM, DVD and CD/DVD burner drives:
device natapicd

To support ATAPI floppy drives:
device natapifd

To support ATAPI tape drives:
device natapist

Alternatively, to load the driver as a module at boot time, place the following line in loader.conf(5):

    nata_load="YES"
    natacard_load="YES"
    natadisk_load="YES"
    nataisa_load="YES"
    natapci_load="YES"
    natapicd_load="YES"
    natapifd_load="YES"
    natapist_load="YES"
    natausb_load="YES"

The following tunables are settable from the loader:

hw.ata.ata_dma
set to 1 for DMA access, 0 for PIO (default is DMA).

hw.ata.atapi_dma
set to 1 for DMA access, 0 for PIO (default is DMA).

hw.ata.wc
set to 1 to enable Write Caching, 0 to disable (default is enabled). WARNING: can cause data loss on power failures and crashes.

DESCRIPTION
The nata driver provides access to ATA (IDE) and SerialATA disk drives, ATAPI CDROM/DVD drives, ZIP/LS120 ATAPI drives and ATAPI tape drives connected to controllers according to the ATA/ATAPI standards.

The currently supported ATA/SATA controller chips are:

Acard:
    ATP850P, ATP860A, ATP860R, ATP865A, ATP865R.
ALI:
    M5229, M5281, M5287, M5288, M5289.
AMD:
    AMD756, AMD766, AMD768, AMD8111.
ATI:
    IXP200, IXP300, IXP400.
CMD:
    CMD646, CMD646U2, CMD648, CMD649.
Cypress:
    Cypress 82C693.
Cyrix:
    Cyrix 5530.
HighPoint:
    HPT302, HPT366, HPT368, HPT370, HPT371, HPT372, HPT372N, HPT374.
Intel:
    6300ESB, 31244, PIIX, PIIX3, PIIX4, ESB2, ICH, ICH0, ICH2, ICH3, ICH4, ICH5, ICH6, ICH7, ICH8, ICH9.
ITE:
    IT8211F, IT8212F.
JMicron:
    JMB360, JMB361, JMB363, JMB365, JMB366, JMB368.
Marvell
    88SX5040, 88SX5041, 88SX5080, 88SX5081, 88SX6041, 88SX6081, 88SX6101, 88SX6141.
National:
    SC1100.
NetCell:
    NC3000, NC5000.
nVidia:
    nForce, nForce2, nForce2 MCP, nForce3, nForce3 MCP, nForce3 Pro, nForce4.
Promise:
    PDC20246, PDC20262, PDC20263, PDC20265, PDC20267, PDC20268, PDC20269, PDC20270, PDC20271, PDC20275, PDC20276, PDC20277, PDC20318, PDC20319, PDC20371, PDC20375, PDC20376, PDC20377, PDC20378, PDC20379, PDC20571, PDC20575, PDC20579, PDC20580, PDC20617, PDC20618, PDC20619, PDC20620, PDC20621, PDC20622, PDC40518, PDC40519, PDC40718, PDC40719.
ServerWorks:
    HT1000, ROSB4, CSB5, CSB6, K2, Frodo4, Frodo8.
Silicon Image:
    SiI0680, SiI3112, SiI3114, SiI3124, SiI3132, SiI3512.
SiS:
    SIS180, SIS181, SIS182, SIS5513, SIS530, SIS540, SIS550, SIS620, SIS630, SIS630S, SIS633, SIS635, SIS730, SIS733, SIS735, SIS745, SIS961, SIS962, SIS963, SIS964, SIS965.
VIA:
    VT6410, VT6420, VT6421, VT82C586, VT82C586B, VT82C596, VT82C596B, VT82C686, VT82C686A, VT82C686B, VT8231, VT8233, VT8233A, VT8233C, VT8235, VT8237, VT8237A, VT8251.

Unknown ATA chipsets are supported in PIO modes, and if the standard busmaster DMA registers are present and contain valid setup, DMA is also enabled, although the max mode is limited to UDMA33, as it is not known what the chipset can do and how to program it.

The nata driver can change the transfer mode and various other parameters when the system is up and running. See natacontrol(8).

The nata driver sets the maximum transfer mode supported by the hardware as default. However the nata driver sometimes warns: “DMA limited to UDMA33, non-ATA66 cable or device”. This means that the nata driver has detected that the required 80 conductor cable is not present or could not be detected properly, or that one of the devices on the channel only accepts up to UDMA2/ATA33.

Unknown ATAPI devices are initialized to DMA mode if the hw.ata.atapi_dma tunable is set to 1 and they support at least UDMA33 transfers. Otherwise they are set to PIO mode because severe DMA problems are common even if the device capabilities indicate support. You can always try to set DMA mode on an ATAPI device using natacontrol(8), but be aware that your hardware might not support it and can potentially hang the entire system causing data loss.

FILES
/dev/ad*
    ATA disk device nodes
/dev/ar*
    ATA RAID device nodes
/dev/acd*
    ATAPI CD-ROM device nodes
/dev/afd*
    ATAPI floppy drive device nodes
/dev/ast*
    ATAPI tape drive device nodes
/sys/config/X86_64_GENERIC
    sample generic kernel config file for nata based systems

NOTES
Please remember that in order to use UDMA4/ATA66 and above modes you must use 80 conductor cables. Please assure that ribbon cables are no longer than 45cm. In case of rounded ATA cables, the length depends on the quality of the cables. SATA cables can be up to 1m long according to the specification.

Static device numbering (enabled with the ATA_STATIC_ID kernel option) reserves a number for each possibly connected disk, even when not present. This is useful in hotswap scenarios where disks should always show up as the same numbered device, and not depend on attach order.

Native Command Queuing (NCQ) on SATA drives is not yet supported.

SEE ALSO
ahci(4), natapicam(4), nataraid(4), nvme(4), sili(4), burncd(8), natacontrol(8)

HISTORY
The ata(4) driver first appeared in FreeBSD 4.0. A later version was imported into DragonFly 1.7 as nata.

AUTHORS
Søren Schmidt <sos@FreeBSD.org>