Re: Hard drive question

M. N. wrote:
> I have a TYAN S2098 i845GL mobo. The manual states that ATA100 IDE drives
> are supported. Will a ATA133 IDE drive work if I use the Ultra-ATA cable
> that came with the drive?
>
>

Yes, the IDE standard allows the interface to run at whatever speed the
whole subsystem supports. If the drive does ATA133, and the chipset
does ATA100, then ATA100 would be the result. If you used an old 40 wire
cable for the IDE interface, the standard claims that most of the time,
the software driver can detect that kind of cable is being used, and the
transfer rate will be further reduced so it can work. (40 wire cable
is not as good at carrying signals, as the 80 wire cable is.)

Due to a peculiarity of the Intel chipset, the benchmark for the drive
will be 100MB/sec in one direction, and 88.9MB/sec in the other. This
has to do with how a certain strobe signal is generated on the Intel
chipset. I've seen that on the motherboard I have here, which has an
Intel chipset with IDE interface (bursts are a bit slower in one
direction).

A good tutorial on IDE is here.

http://www.pcguide.com/ref/hdd/if/ide/conf.htm

Paul