ALI PCI IDE Controller

Windows device driver information for ALI PCI IDE Controller

The ALI PCI IDE Controller device is able to support up to 2 IDE channels (secondary and primary) with 2 devices for every channel totaling 4 IDE devices. The 2 channels supported by the IDE controller will not have an effect on each other’s tasks since they are independent of each other. Each channel’s control registers follow the ATA (AT Attachment) Interface Standard. This device is a single PCI function. A PCI device that supports 4 IDE channels is a multifunction device (2 or more functions) in which every function is a PCI IDE controller that supports 2 channels. The ALI PCI IDE Controller device should strictly respond and implement the PCI configuration space like all other PCI devices. The ATA specification is capable of defining 2 sets of registers called the Command Block Registers and the Control Block Registers.

The Control Block Registers is made up of 2 bytes utilized for the IDE device’s status / control. On the other hand, the Command Block Registers is made up of 8 I/O ports that provide the IDE device with different status / command functions. The 2nd byte of the Control Block Registers’ 2 bytes is read only. The upper section of the byte is shared with the controller for the floppy when the IDE device will be mapped at ‘compatibility’ locations. While the software used to manage IDE devices (drivers, BIOS among others) do not utilize the register. The one exception of the ATA specification for PCI IDE controllers such as the ALI PCI IDE Controller is that solely the 1st of the 2 bytes that are defined in the Control Block registers will be employed. This employed byte will provide the ‘Device Control’ on writes and the ‘Alternate Status’ reads. It is highly recommended you run a free registry scan for and ALI PCI IDE Controller errors before installing any driver updates.