
June 23, 2010 |
Foreword
Foreword
(This foreword is not part of American National Standard
DOS accesses its mass storage devices using an INT13h programming interface provided by BIOS firmware to
528MB of disk addressing. Later this same interface was upgraded to support approx. 8.4GB of disk addressing. Finally, extended functions were created that allowed
a)CHS addressing with an 8.4GB limitation;
b)Logical Block Addressing (LBA);
c)removes the requirement of using interrupt 41h/46h to point at the Fixed Disk Parameter Table information;
d)makes location and configuration information available to operating systems that do not use the BIOS to access mass storage devices;
e)use data structures that apply to both
f)use data structures that can address media capacities for the next 20 years; and
g)boot from CD or DVD.
Requests for interpretation, suggestions for improvement and addenda, or defect reports are welcome. They should be sent to the NCITS Secretariat, Information Technology Industry Council, 1250 I Street NW, Suite 200, Washington, DC
This standard was processed and approved for submittal to ANSI by National Committee for Information Technology Standardization (NCITS). Committee approval of this standard does not necessarily imply that all committee members voted for approval. At the time it approved this standard, NCITS had the following members:
Editor’s Note 1: Insert INCITS Membership List Here
Technical Committee T13h on ATA Interfaces, that reviewed this standard, had the following members and additional participants:
Dan Colegrove, Chair
Jim Hatfield,
Mark Overby, Secretary
Editor’s Note 2: Insert T13h Membership List Here
Introduction
This standard encompasses the following:
Clause 1 describes the scope.
Clause 2 provides normative references.
Clause 3 provides definitions, abbreviations, and conventions.
Clause 4 is the overview.
Clause 5 is INT 13h functions limited to 8GB if disk addressing.
Clause 6 is INT 13h functions not limited to 8GB of disk addressing.
Working Draft Enhanced Disk Drive - 4 | xi |