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Hiya, (this is reposted as I think sending failed previously). As a humble newbie to ATA driver writing (so reading the spec. from scratch - probably useful given the long experience in the field of many members of this group!) I've been reading the ATA documentation at length now. I'm having difficulty with IDENTIFY DEVICE Word 93. The description associated with it explains the more immediately obvious part: namely which device will set which bits. However, it appears IMHO to omit the more useful information. A brief one or two sentences would be really handy to explain the purpose of DASP- and PDIAG- with regard to error detection etc. I suspect this may be present in detail in volume 2, but no reference is made (either directly or by description of the appropriate section in v2) in the description. As someone with limited hardware engineering knowledge volume 2 often appears beyond the level needed for purely software-based work in any case. Also - is bit 13 the only required indicator to work out whether an 80-wire or 40-wire cable is present? If so, would it be possible to clarify that this is what it does in the description of this word? If anyone could clarify the above issues, I'd be most appreciative; also hope they form a useful documentation change suggestion. If I've missed something, please let me know appropriate places to look! Best wishes, Drew ________________________________________________________________________ All email and attachments sent from http://www.Doctors.net.uk have been scanned by the MessageLabs SkyScan antivirus system ________________________________________________________________________
