ISTR reading that the nforce4/5 sata controllers have 2/3 channels respectively resulting in 2 drives per channel sharing 300MBs of bandwidth. Is this correct? If so what implications does that have. I believe with pata drives if there's more than one on a channel then only one of the drives can be accessed at a time, is that the case for sata? I'm curious because I never see people suggesting that people make sure each drive is on it's own channel. Also what is the channel configuration on other recent sata controllers e.g. intel ICH8, ATI SB600 etc?
Scroll to "Improved feature: Mediashield" Nforce 4 has "2 independent Sata controllers" Another mention of nforce 4 having 2 controllers I saw it mentioned a couple of other places as well but can't seem to find them.
2 controllers controlled by a high speed switch iirc. It's the same thing with the PCI Express boards with multiple x16 slots: the northbridge acts as a high speed switch modulating the avaliable addresses. You always manage to ask questions I dont know the answer too without looking I've no idea of the other southbridges but they all perform about the same with a raptor.
Errr could you simplify that for me please . What does that mean for 2 300MBs drives being on the same "channel"? Can they be accessed at the same time? Sorry I'm a bit confused Yeah I have a habit of thinking about the things most people don't care to know about plus I like keeping people on their toes For a single drive I doubt this issue of channels comes into play. ISTR reading that the Via 8251 SB had 4 channels for it's 4 sata ports. Will try and find the reference for it. Found the reference Another mention from the same article
With sata, you don't need to refer to channels as such. IDE generally had the Primary and Secondary 'channels' which each could have up to two drives attached for a total of four. SATA is always one drive per 'channel'. Basically you will have 6 SATA ports available on the mobo which can all work together (like in RAID) or seperately. The dual PHYs part I think just means you can have a SATAII 300MB/s disk attached to the same controller as a 150MB/s SATAI drive without forcing it to slow down. Basically, it sounds like the dog's danglies.
