
A C - 3 1 6 0 0             C A V I A R    WESTERN DIGITAL
NO MORE PRODUCED                                      Native|  Translation
                                                      ------+-----+-----+-----
Form                 3.5"/SLIMLINE         Cylinders        | 3148|     |
Capacity form/unform  1624/      MB        Heads           6|   16|     |
Seek time   / track  11.0/ 3.0 ms          Sector/track     |   63|     |
Controller           IDE / ATA2 FAST/ENHA  Precompensation
Cache/Buffer           128 KB ADAPTIVE     Landing Zone
Data transfer rate          MB/S int       Bytes/Sector      512
                     16.600 MB/S ext DMA2
Recording method     RLL 1/7                        operating  | non-operating
                                                  -------------+--------------
Supply voltage     5/12 V       Temperature *C         5 55    |    -40 60
Power: sleep          0.5 W     Humidity     %         8 80    |      5 95
       standby        0.5 W     Altitude    km    -0.305  3.048| -0.305 12.192
       idle           4.3 W     Shock        g        10       |    150
       seek               W     Rotation   RPM      5200
       read/write     4.3 W     Acoustic   dBA        37
       spin-up       11.2 W     ECC        Bit   REED SOLOMON
                                MTBF         h     300000
                                Warranty Month        36
Lift/Lock/Park     YES          Certificates     CSA,FCC,IEC950,TUV,UL1950    

**********************************************************************
                        L   A   Y   O   U   T
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WESTERN  CAVIAR SERIES  INSTALLATION GUIDE 79-000564-007

  +---------------------------------------------------------+
  |                                                         |XX
  |                                                         |XX J2
  |                                                         |XX Inter-
  |                                                         |XX face
  |                                                         |XX
  |                                                         |.X
  |                                                         |XX
  |                                                         |XX
  |                                                         |XX
  |                                                         |XX
  |                                                         |X1
  |                                                         |+-+
  |                                                         || |J8
  |                                                         |+-1
  |                                                         |XX Power
  |                                                         |XX J3
  +---------------------------------------------------------+  1








                         J2                    J8     J3
    +39------------------------------------1++5-3-1++-------+
    |o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o||o o o||O O O O|
    |o o o o o o o o o o   o o o o o o o o o||o o o||4 3 2 1|
  --+40------------------------------------2++6-4-2+++-+-+-++----
                                                     | | | +12V
                   (Pin 20 keyed)                    | | +- GND
                                                     | +--- GND
                                                     +----- +5V



**********************************************************************
                      J   U   M   P   E   R   S
**********************************************************************
WESTERN  CAVIAR SERIES  INSTALLATION GUIDE 79-000564-007

 Jumper setting
 ==============

 J8  Master/Slave/Cable Select Configuration
 -------------------------------------------

    +5-3-1+ Single (Neutral Position)
    |xxx o| Factory default. The jumper in this position has no effect
    |o o o| on single hard drive configurations.
    +6-4-2+


    +5-3-1+ Single Drive              +5-3-1+ Master Drive
    |o o o| Configuration             |X o o| Configuration
    |o o o|                           |X o o| (Dual Drives)
    +6-4-2+                           +6-4-2+


    +5-3-1+ Slave Drive
    |o X o| Configuration
    |o X o| (Dual Drives)
    +6-4-2+

 The Caviar can be assigned as either a single, master, or slave
 drive.

 Caviar drives are shipped with a jumper shunt in the neutral storage
 position (across pins 5 and 3).


 Single Drive Mode
 -----------------
 If you are installing the Caviar drive as the only intelligent drive
 in the system, you do not need install jumpers on the J8 connector.
 This is considered a standard single drive installation, and no
 jumpers are required. Note that even with no jumper installed, the
 Caviar checks the DRIVE ACTIVE/SLAVE PRESENT (DASP) signal to de-
 termine if a slave intelligent drive is present.

 If you have a dual installation (two intelligent drives), you must
 designate one of the drives as the master and the other as the slave
 drive. The jumper pins on the J8 connector need to be configured for
 the dual installation.


 Master Drive Mode
 -----------------
 To designate the drive as the master, place a jumper shunt on pins
 5-6. With the Caviar configured as the master drive, the Caviar
 assumes that a slave drive is present. The jumper on pins 5-6 is
 optional if the slave drive follows the same protocol (Common Access
 Method AT Bus Attachment) as the Caviar.


 Slave Drive Mode
 ----------------
 To designate the drive as the slave, place a jumper shunt on pins
 3-4. When the Caviar is configured as the slave drive, the Caviar
 delays spin up for three seconds after power-up reset. This feature
 prevents overloading of the power supply during power-up.


 J3   DC Power and pin connector assignments
 -------------------------------------------
      +------------+   pin 1    +12 V
      | 4  3  2  1 |   pin 2    GND
      +------------+   pin 3    GND
                       pin 4    + 5 V



**********************************************************************
                      I   N   S   T   A   L   L
**********************************************************************
WESTERN  AC21000/21200/31600  TECHNICAL REFERENCE MANUAL 79-860021-000

 Notes On Installation
 =====================

 Installation direction
 ----------------------

     horizontally                           vertically
   +-----------------+             +--+                       +--+
   |                 |             |  +-----+           +-----+  |
   |                 |             |  |     |           |     |  |
 +-+-----------------+-+           |  |     |           |     |  |
 +---------------------+           |  |     |           |     |  |
                                   |  |     |           |     |  |
                                   |  |     |           |     |  |
 +---------------------+           |  +-----+           +-----+  |
 +-+-----------------+-+           +--+                       +--+
   |                 |
   |                 |
   +-----------------+


 Orientation
 -----------
 The Caviar can be mounted in the X, Y, or Z axis depending upon the
 physical design of your system. It is recommended that the drive be
 mounted with all four screws grounded to the chassis.


 Screw Size Limitations
 ----------------------
 The Caviar is mounted to the chassis using four 6-32 screws.
 Recommended screw torque is 5 in-lb. Maximum screw torque is 10
 in-lb.

 Caution: Screws that are too long will damage circuit board
 components. The screw must engage no more than six threads (3/16
 inch). Side mounted screws should engage a maximum of .188 inches
 (3/16"). Bottom mounted screws should engage a maximum of .250
 inches (1/4").

 Grounding
 ---------
 It is recommended that the drive be mounted with all four screws in
 the side grounded to the chassis. The drive must be grounded with at
 least one mounting screw. Side mounting: Use four metal screws.
 Top face mounting: Use four metal screws.


 Determining Your Configuration
 ------------------------------
 You can configure the Caviar in one of two ways:
 1. The drive is cabled directly to a 40-pin connector on the
    motherboard, or
 2. The drive is cabled to an adapter card mounted in one of the
    expansion slots in the computer.

 Both configurations use a 40-pin host interface cable.

 If you are using the Caviar drive as one of two hard disk drives in
 the computer (dual installation), you may use either configuration.
 In dual installations, you must use a 40-pin host interface cable
 with three connectors and daisy-chain the two drives to the
 motherboard or adapter card.


 Dual Installations
 ------------------
 Dual installations require a master/slave drive configuration, where
 one drive is designated as the primary (master) drive and the other
 is designated as the secondary (slave) drive. The Caviar drive is
 compatible in dual installations with other IDE drives that support a
 master/slave configuration.


 Mounting the Drive
 ------------------
 For dual installations, it is usually easier to completely install
 one IDE drive in the lower position first. The order of IDE drives is
 unimportant if you are using two Western Digital drives. As explained
 previously, one must be jumpered as the master drive and the other as
 the slave drive. When installation is complete, the drives are
 daisy-chained together.


 Cabling and Installation Steps
 ------------------------------
 Make sure your interface cable is no longer than 18 inches (including
 daisy chaining) to minimize noise that is induced on the data and
 control buses. When connecting two drives, use a daisy-chain cable
 that has three 40-pin connectors. Connectors should be placed no more
 than six inches from the end of the cable. If only one drive is
 connected, it should be placed on the end of the cable.

 Caution: You may damage the Caviar drive if the interface cable is
 not connected properly. To prevent incorrect connection, use a cable
 that has keyed connectors at both the drive and host ends.
 Pin 20 has been removed from the J2 connector. The female connector
 on the interface cable should have a plug in position 20 to prevent
 incorrect connection. Make sure that pin 1 on the cable is connected
 to pin 1 on the connectors.

 The order in which you perform the following steps will vary
 depending on your system.

 1. Attach the end of the 40-pin interface cable to the 40-pin J2
    connector on the back of the Caviar hard drive. For dual
    installations, connect the two drives together by using a
    three-connector interface cable. Match the orientation of pin
    socket 1 on the 40-pin IDE cable to pin 1 on the connector.

 2. Thread the cable through the empty drive bay and slide in the
    Caviar drive.

 3. Mount the Caviar drive in the drive bay using four 6-32 screws. Be
    sure to use the correct size screws. Do not install the screws
    past six threads (3/16 inch). Screws that are too long will
    damage the Caviar drive.

 For proper grounding be sure to use ALL four screws.



**********************************************************************
                      F   E   A   T   U   R   E  S
**********************************************************************
WESTERN  AC21000/31600  TECHNICAL REFERENCE MANUAL 1/96

 General Description
 -------------------
 The Caviar AC21000 and AC31600 Enhanced IDE (EIDE) disk drives are
 high-performance solutions designed to meet the requirements of
 today's most powerful systems from home and business PC's to
 workstations and servers. These drives are based on our successful
 proven design concepts. By combining enhanced electronics with new
 head and read-channel technology, we have produced the market-leading
 areal density and the highest performance Caviar drives to date.
 High-speed host data transfers, advanced caching, increased
 rotational speeds, and low mechanical latency combine to give
 the AC21000 and AC31600 the level of performance demanded by today's
 most advanced systems.

 These drives support host data transfers of 16.6 MB/s Mode 4 PIO and
 16.6 MB/s Mode 2 multi-word DMA enabling VESA VL or PCI local bus
 EIDE integration. The AC21000 and AC31600 offer a rotational speed of
 5200 RPM and include CacheFlow4.

 CacheFlow4 offers adaptive read and write caching capabilities which
 complements the advanced caching capabilities of today's major
 operating systems. An average read seek time of sub 10/11 ms and
 rotational latency of 5.76 ms combine to provide fast mechanical
 access. The AC21000 and AC31600 offer performance beyond that of the
 ISA bus. Optimum performance is obtained when these drives are
 integrated into a VESA VL or PCI local bus EIDE environment. System
 integration of these drives in a DOS or Windows environment requires
 either BIOS, device driver or operating system support for EIDE disk
 drives with capacities greater than 528 MB.

 The AC21000 and AC31600 drives support advanced power management
 capabilities that can reduce power requirements over 85 percent. All
 Caviar drives are preformatted (low-level) and defects are mapped
 out before shipment. Additional Caviar features include logical
 block addressing, linear logical/physical universal address
 translation, automatic head parking, embedded servo control data on
 each track, and ECC on-the-fly correction.

 Western Digital's award-winning Caviar drives are designed and
 manufactured to the highest standards of quality and reliability.
 This is demonstrated by their three-year warranty, 300,000 hours
 Mean Time Between Failure, and guaranteed compatibility.

 The Caviar AC21000 and AC31600 drives are today's solution to the
 computer market's ever-increasing demand for higher performance and
 expanded connectivity capability and they still provide the
 advantages of low cost, compatibility and ease of use.


 Advanced Product Features
 -------------------------
 - CacheFlow4 - Western Digital's unique, fourth-generation caching
   evaluates the way data is read from and written to the drive and
   adapts on-the-fly to the optimum read and write caching methods.
   CacheFlow4 minimizes disk seeking operations and the overhead
   due to rotational latency delays.

   CacheFlow4 includes random and sequential write cache.
   Incorporating write cache with other CacheFlow4 features enables
   the user to cache both read data as well as write data. Multiple
   writes can now be held in the cache and then written collectively
   to the hard disk later. Data is held in the cache no longer than
   the time required to write all cached commands to the disk.

   CacheFlow4 constantly evaluates not only the size of the read
   data request but the type of data request, that is, whether the
   application is sequential, random, or repetitive.

   CacheFlow4 then dynamically partitions the Caviar's 128-Kbyte
   DRAM buffer into equalsized segments and selects the appropriate
   caching mode for optimum system performance.


 - Advanced Host Transfer - The AC21000 and AC31600 support Mode 4 PIO
   (16.6 MB/s) and Mode 2 multi-word DMA (16.6 MB/s) as defined by the
   ATA-2 standards. To achieve Mode 4 PIO burst transfers, hard disk
   drives must be able to throttle the host via the IORDY signal.
   Systems typically require a high-speed VL or PCI local bus in
   order to support Mode 4 PIO.

 - High-Speed DMA Capability - DMA Read and DMA Write commands are
   ATA-2-compatible and provide significant improvement in CPU
   bandwidth over conventional PIO data transfers. The system CPU
   is free to accomplish other tasks while the Caviar drive
   transfers data directly to/from system memory.

 - Power Conservation - The AC21000 and AC31600 support the ATA-2
   power management command set. This command set allows the host to
   reduce the power consumption of the drive by issuing a variety of
   power management commands.

 - Extended Contact Start/Stop Capabilities (CSS) - Today's
   power-managed desktop systems result in more contact start/stop
   cycles to the disk drive. The AC21000 and AC31600 support a
   minimum of 60,000 start/stop cycles.

 - Zoned Recording - The AC21000 and AC31600 employ Zoned Recording to
   increase the data density on the outer tracks of the drive. The
   outermost tracks contain more sectors than the innermost tracks,
   thereby increasing the total capacity of the drive.

 - Block Mode - ATA-2 compatible Read Multiple and Write Multiple
   commands are supported. Block mode increases overall data
   transfer rates by transferring more data between system
   interrupts.

 - Logical Block Addressing (LBA) - The AC21000 and AC31600 support
   both LBA and CHS-based addressing. LBA is included in advanced
   BIOS and operating system device drivers and ensures
   high-capacity disk integration.

 - Automatic Head Parking - Head parking is automatic with Caviar
   drives. On power down, the heads retract to a safe, non-data
   landing zone and lock into position, improving data integrity and
   resistance to nonoperational shock.

 - Advanced Defect Management - These Caviar drives are preformatted
   (low-level) at the factory and come with a full complement of
   automatic defect management functions. Extensively tested during
   the manufacturing process, media defects found during intelligent
   burn in are mapped out with Western Digital's high performance
   defect management technique. No modifications are required
   before installation.

 - Embedded Servo Control - These Caviar drives feature an embedded
   servo concept as the means of providing sampled position feedback
   information to the head position servo system. Servo bursts are
   located along a radial path from the disk center, ensuring that
   head positioning data occurs at constant intervals. This high
   sampling rate supports the high frequency servo bandwidth
   required for fast access times as well as highly accurate head
   positioning. The embedded servo concept provides the means of
   generating accurate feedback information without requiring a full
   data surface as would a dedicated servo control concept.


 - Dual Drive Operation - These Caviar drives support dual drive
   operation by means of a "daisy chain" cable assembly and
   configuration options for master or slave drive designation.

 - Universal Address Translation - These Caviar drives provide a
   linear disk address translator to convert logical sector
   addresses to physical sector addresses which provides for easy
   installation and compatibility with numerous drive types.


 - Guaranteed Compatibility - Western Digital performs extensive
   testing in its Functional Integrity Test Lab (FIT Lab(TM)) to
   ensure compatibility with all 100% AT-compatible computers and
   standard operating systems.

 - Reed Solomon ECC On-the-Fly - The Caviar implements Reed Solomon
   error correction techniques to obtain extremely low read error
   rates. This error correction algorithm corrects errors
   on-the-fly without any performance penalties. It allows for
   hardware corrections of up to a 24-bit error span on-the-fly.

 - Automatic Defect Retirement - If the Caviar drive detects a
   defective sector while writing, it automatically relocates the
   sector without enduser intervention.


 Defect Management
 Every Caviar undergoes factory-level intelligent burn in, which
 thoroughly tests for and maps out defective sectors on the media
 before the drive leaves the manufacturing facility. Following the
 factory tests, a primary defect list is created. The list contains
 the cylinder, head, and sector numbers for all defects.

 Defects managed at the factory are sector slipped. Grown defects that
 can occur in the field are mapped out by relocation to spare sectors
 on the inner cylinders of the drive.


 Format Characteristics
 ----------------------
 The Caviar is shipped from the factory preformatted (low-level) with
 all the known defects mapped out. In order to be compatible with
 existing industry standard defect management utility programs, the
 Caviar supports the logical format command. When the host issues the
 Format Track command, the Caviar performs a logical version of this
 command in response to the host's interleave table request for good
 and bad sector marking or assign/unassign the sector to/from an
 alternate sector.

 If the host issues the Format Track Command during normal operating
 modes, the data fields of the specified track are filled with a data
 pattern of all zeros. The Format Track Command can be used to
 mark/unmark bad sectors, and reassign unrelocated sectors.


 Automatic Defect Retirement
 ---------------------------
 The automatic defect retirement feature automatically maps out
 defective sectors while writing. If a defective sector appears,
 Caviar finds a spare sector at the inner diameter cylinders and
 relocates the sector.


 Error Recovery Process
 ----------------------
 The Caviar has four means of error recovery:

 - ECC On-the-Fly

 - Read/Write Retry Procedure

 - Extended Read Retry Procedure

 - Extended (Firmware Assisted) ECC

 ECC On-the-Fly - If an ECC error occurs, the Caviar attempts to
 correct it on-the-fly without retries. Data can be corrected in this
 manner without performance penalty.

 Read/Write Retry Procedure - This retry procedure is used by all disk
 controller error types. If this procedure succeeds in reading or
 writing the sector being tried, then recovery is complete and the
 controller continues with the command. Each retry operation also
 checks for servo errors. This procedure ends when error recovery is
 achieved or when all possible retries have been attempted.

 Extended Read Retry Procedure - This retry procedure tries
 combinations of positive/negative track offsets, and data DAC
 manipulations to recover the data. This retry procedure is applicable
 only to read data recovery. The Read/Write Retry procedure is used
 to perform the actual retry operation. When an extended retry
 operation has been successful, the controller continues with the
 command. The controller ensures that any changes in track offset or
 data DAC settings that exist are cleared before the command
 continues.

 Extended (Firmware Assisted) ECC - If an ECC error is too large to
 correct using ECC on-the-fly, the Caviar can attempt to correct the
 error using Extended Error Correction. This allows correction of
 large ECC errors that ECC on-the-fly cannot correct. However, the
 Extended Error Correction process takes more time than ECC
 on-the-fly to return the corrected data.


 REED SOLOMON ECC On-the-Fly
 ---------------------------
 The Caviar implements Reed Solomon error correction techniques in
 hardware to reduce the uncorrectable read error rate. This allows a
 high degree of data integrity with no impact on the drive's
 performance. Because on-the-fly corrected errors do not require the
 drive's firmware to assist with error correction, they are invisible
 to the host system. To obtain the ECC check byte values, each byte
 within the sector is interleaved into one of three groups, where the
 first byte is in interleave 1, the second byte is in interleave 2,
 the third byte is in interleave 3, the fourth byte is in interleave
 1, and so on. See Figures 3-2 and 3-3 for examples of interleaving.
 Interleaving and the ECC formulas enable the drive to detect where
 the error occurs. A maximum of one byte can be corrected in each
 interleave without firmware assistance.


 Firmware Assisted ECC
 ----------------------
 With firmware assisted ECC, a maximum of 3 bytes can be corrected in
 each interleave. In this case, a 65-bit error span is the maximum
 that is always correctable with firmware assistance because the
 entire error span will never occupy more than three bytes in each
 interleave.


 Universal Address Translation
 -----------------------------
 The Caviar implements linear address translation. The translation
 mode and translated drive configuration are selected by using the Set
 Drive Parameters command to issue head and sector/track counts to the
 translator. Caviar supports universal translation. Therefore, any
 valid combination of cylinder, head, and SPT can be assigned to the
 drive as long as the total number of sectors is not greater than the
 physical limits. The product of the cylinder, head and sectors/track
 counts must be equal to or less than the maximum number of sectors
 available to the user. The maximum number of sectors per drive for
 the AC21000 are 2,116,800. The maximum number of sectors per drive
 for the AC31600 are 3,173,184.

 Each sector consists of 512 bytes.

 The minimum value for any translation parameter is one. The maximum
 value for any translation parameter is as follows:

 Sectors/Track - 255 Heads - 16 Cylinders/Drive - 65,535

 The values in the Sector Count Register and the SDH Register
 determine the Sectors Per Track (SPT) and heads. Regardless of the
 values of the SPT and the heads, Caviar is always in the translation
 mode.


 Power Conservation
 ------------------
 The AC21000 and AC31600 support the ATA-2 power management commands
 that lower the average power consumption of the disk drives. For
 example, to take advantage of the lower power consumption modes of
 the drive, an energy efficient host system could implement a power
 management scheme that issues a Standby Immediate command when a host
 resident disk inactivity timer has expired. The Standby Immediate
 command would cause the drive to spin down and enter a low-power
 mode. Subsequent disk access commands would cause the drive to spin
 up and execute the new command. To avoid excessive wear on the drive
 due to the starting and stopping of the HDA, the host's disk
 inactivity timer should be set to no shorter than ten minutes.


 High-Speed DMA Capability
 -------------------------
 By engaging an ATA-2 compatible, Mode 2 multi-word DMA, the host CPU
 bandwidth is increased because the peripheral data transfer burden is
 off-loaded to the system's DMA channel. With the exception of DMA
 data transfers, which are limited to Read DMA and Write DMA
 commands, all other commands must be performed using PIO. DMA or PIO
 data transfer mode selection by the host is performed on a
 command-by-command basis.


 Advanced Host Transfers
 -----------------------
 The AC21000 and AC31600 support high-speed Mode 3 and 4 PIO. These
 are data transfer modes that utilize hardware handshaking between the
 host and the drive via the IORDY signal. When the drive deasserts the
 IORDY signal, the host extends the read/write cycle until IORDY is
 asserted, thereby eliminating data corruption from overrun and
 underrun conditions. When in Mode 3 PIO, data can be transferred in
 bursts to and from the host at a rate of up to 11.1 MB per second; in
 Mode 4 PIO, the data can be transferred at a rate of up to 16.6 MB
 per second. Mode 3 and Mode 4 PIO are enabled on the drive by issuing
 a Set Features command. If Mode 3 or Mode 4 PIO is enabled, it can
 only be disabled by issuing another Set Features command, a hard
 reset, or by cycling power. To support Mode 4 PIO, Flow Control must
 be enabled in the host system. If this mode is enabled on a system
 that does not support Flow Control, host FIFO errors can occur. Mode
 3 and Mode 4 PIO timings were defined to facilitate EIDE drive
 integration into VL and PCI local bus systems.


 Zoned Recording
 ---------------
 Zoned Recording is a mechanism for increasing the capacity of the
 drive by increasing the Bit-Per-Inch (BPI) density of data written
 on the longer outer tracks of the drive. Track capacity (number of
 sectors) is constant within groups of tracks or zones, and is
 increased when the tracks are sufficiently long to accommodate a
 significant number of additional sectors. This incremental increase
 in track capacity moving outward on the disk surface creates a series
 of concentric zones with different data densities.


 WESTERN DIGITAL Defect Management Utility
 -----------------------------------------
 All Caviar IDE drives are defect-free and low level formatted at the
 factory. After prolonged use, any drive, including Caviar, may
 develop defects. If you continue receiving data errors in any given
 file at the DOS level, you can use the defect management utility
 WDAT_IDE to recover, relocate and rewrite the user data to the
 nearest spare sector and maintain a secondary defect list.

 Caution: As with all format utilities, some options in the WDAT_IDE
 utility will overwrite user data.


 Self-Monitoring, Analysis, and Reporting Technology (S.M.A.R.T.)
 ----------------------------------------------------------------
 S.M.A.R.T. enables a drive's internal status to be monitored through
 diagnostic commands at the host level.

 The Caviar AC21600, AC32100 and AC32500 drives monitor read error
 rate, start/stop count, spin-up retry count, and drive calibration
 retry count. All of these attributes are updated and stored on the
 hard drive in the reserved area of the disk. The hard drive also
 stores a set of attribute thresholds that correspond to the
 calculated attribute values. Each attribute threshold indicates the
 point at which its corresponding attribute value achieves a negative
 reliability status.



**********************************************************************
                      G   E   N   E   R   A   L
**********************************************************************
WESTERN   ENHANCED EIDE

 Enhanced IDE Backgrounder
 =========================

 The Computer Market and the IDE Interface:
 ------------------------------------------
 The computer marketplace is segmented into various classes of
 machines divided by user expectations in terms of cost, performance,
 compatibility and ease-of-use. The largest distinct segment today is
 the personal computer market, characterized by single- user products
 supporting a broad user base. The usage of these machines in business
 and home environments has dictated an emphasis on cost and
 compatibility. Historically, cost and compatibility in the personal
 computer marketplace have been more important to mainstream users
 than very high performance. The PC user has simply not been willing
 to bear the added cost or potential lack of compatibility that
 highest performance solutions imply.

 Given this criteria, the mainstream volume personal computer market
 has standardized on the IDE interface for its primary storage needs.
 The success of the IDE interface in the PC market has resulted
 primarily from a perfect match between IDE's offerings and the
 requirements of the market it serves. Specifically, its low cost of
 connection, compatibility, and ease-of-use, compared to alternative
 interfaces such as the Small Computer System Interface (SCSI), have
 been essential attributes in satisfying an expansive price-sensitive
 user group. In addition, because of the broad user base it serves,
 the personal computer market has traditionally required only hard
 disk support to meet its mass storage requirements. IDE has therefore
 evolved as a drive-only interface.


 Increasing Need for Performance and Connectivity Flexibility:
 -------------------------------------------------------------
 As the personal computer market matures, it continues to display an
 increased emphasis on enhanced performance and connectivity
 capabilities, while maintaining its focus on cost, compatibility and
 ease-of-use. The market criteria has therefore grown to include
 higher performance attributes without sacrificing the needs of its
 price sensitive customers. It is in the realm of higher performance
 characteristics and connectivity that today's traditional IDE
 interface faces challenges. Other existing interfaces, such as SCSI,
 provide greater flexibility and performance options to meet these
 requirements, while failing to provide IDE's benefits of
 compatibility, cost and ease-of-use.

 Western Digital's Enhanced IDE technology addresses the performance
 and connectivity challenges facing the IDE interface. Enhanced IDE is
 designed to extend the attributes of the IDE interface so that its
 characteristics more effectively match the new requirements of the
 evolving personal computer market, without forfeiting its traditional
 benefits.


 Western Digital and the IDE Interface - Building upon Expertise:
 ----------------------------------------------------------------
 Western Digital's Enhanced IDE technology evolves from the company's
 storage expertise within the personal computer marketplace. In 1984,
 Western Digital developed the WD1002 floppy and ST506 interface hard
 disk controller that IBM utilized in their PC/AT systems. The success
 of the PC/AT architecture led to the massive growth of the IBM PC/AT
 compatible market. This dramatic growth was in part fueled by WD1002
 compatible hard disk controllers and later by Western Digital's
 standard-setting WD1003 series of AT controllers.

 As the market expanded and became more price sensitive, Western
 Digital defined the need for integration of the AT controller
 electronics within the disk drive. By working with Compaq Computer
 Corporation, Western Digital again drove the technology by proposing
 the IDE (Integrated Drive Electronics) interface which was
 implemented in the industry's first IDE drive in 1986. The disk
 drives used in personal computers have standardized around IDE since
 this introduction.


 ATAPI Specification:
 --------------------
 Now, Western Digital continues to lead the industry with its IDE
 interface expertise via Enhanced IDE, an approach that expands upon
 the existing attributes of the IDE interface and extends its usage
 into more demanding environments. Enhanced IDE not only incorporates
 high speed host transfer capabilities, support of high capacity disk
 drives, and multiple device connectivity, but it also includes
 non-disk peripheral support via the Western Digital authored ATAPI
 (AT Attachment Packet Interface) specification. This
 enhanced IDE-ATA specification enables connectivity of non-disk
 peripherals such as CD-ROM and tape drives. The Western Digital
 defined ATAPI specification, with participation and endorsement by
 key market-making OEMS, CD-ROM suppliers and operating system
 suppliers, is yet another example of Western Digital's commitment to
 the evolution of the IDE interface.


 Enhanced IDE:
 -------------
 Enhanced IDE removes many of the existing limitations and issues
 associated with the current IDE interface. Removal of these
 limitations enables IDE to grow with the industry's increased mass
 storage requirements without sacrificing its key cost, compatibility
 and ease-of- use attributes. The historical limitations of IDE
 relative to other interfaces, such as SCSI, have not threatened IDE's
 dominance of the PC marketplace to date. Upcoming personal computer
 systems, architected around high performance processors, more complex
 operating systems, and more demanding software applications, have
 developed storage requirements beyond the realm of today's IDE
 capabilities, challenging IDE's dominant role in the PC market.

 Specifically, the IDE interface is less flexible and limited in key
 areas of performance and connectivity relative to the SCSI interface:

     The IDE interface supports two disk drives. The SCSI interface
     supports multiple devices includingprinters, CD-ROM, tape drives
     as well as hard disk drives.

     The IDE interface is limited to 528MB hard disk capacity as a
     result of the Int 13h BIOS interface used to access IDE
     drives. The SCSI interface is not limited in capacity. The
     IDE interface typically offers 2-3MB/sec host transfer rates
     on standard ISA bus architected machines. The SCSI interface
     offers 10MB/sec FAST transfers and up to 20MB/sec FAST/WIDE
     host throughput.

 Western Digital's Enhanced IDE technology offers solutions to the
 existing constraints associated with the current IDE interface such
 as capacity limitations, slower host transfers, and connectivity
 issues associated with the IDE interface and thereby enables a cost
 effective, compatible, and easy-to-use interface solution for the
 next generation of personal computers.


 Components of Enhanced IDE:
 ---------------------------
 Enhanced IDE focuses on removing four primary limitations of the
 existing IDE interface. These include:

      Removal of the 528MB capacity barrier
      Breaking the IDE transfer bottleneck
      Supporting multiple IDE devices
      Enabling non-disk peripheral connectivity, such as CD-ROM

 Below, each of these limitations is discussed and resolved in detail.


 Removal of Capacity Limitations
 -------------------------------
 A barrier in implementing IDE disk drives greater than 528MB exists
 in today's standard AT system BIOS. This barrier is based on
 historical reasons dating from the development of the original AT
 machine in 1984. Specifically, it is a limitation of the combined
 Interrupt 13 software interface and the IDE interface. The goal is to
 change the system BIOS such that this barrier no longer exists,
 thereby enabling the usage of high capacity IDE disk drives. Western
 Digitial's specification for removing the 528MB barrier is a simple
 yet effective method for implementation by BIOS suppliers and system
 manufactures who write their own BIOS.

 The capacity limitation exists due to the number of bits allocated
 for specifying the cylinder, head, and sector address information at
 both the Int 13h interface level and at the IDE interface level.
 Because Int 13h and IDE specify differing values, combining these two
 interfaces produces an artificial 528MB barrier as shown below:

                                  BIOS          IDE
 ---------------------------------------------------------------
 Limitation Max Sectors/Track      63           225           63
 Number of Heads                  255            16           16
 Number of Cylinders             1024         65536         1024
 Maximum Capacity               8.4GB       136.9GB        528MB

 Two solutions exist that resolve the existing 528MB barrier problem.
 The first method is to have the BIOS translate the CHS address at the
 13h interface to the CHS parameters being used at the drive
 interface. The Enhanced IDE proposal to break the 528MB barrier is to
 utilize the second method of modifying the Int 13h BIOS so that it
 translates the cylinder, head, sector information passed to it via
 Int 13 into a 28 bit Logical Block Address (LBA). The LBA solution is
 believed to be the best method of breaking the 528MB barrier because
 it provides a clean and efficient way for future operating system
 drivers to access IDE drives.

 The LBA translation is loaded into the drive's task file registers.
 Bit 6 of the drive's SDH register is set to indicate to the drive's
 firmware that it should interpret the information in its task file
 registers as LBA rather than cylinder, head and sector information.
 This scheme will allow for the full use of all of the bits allocated
 for CHS information at the Int 13h interface, thereby supporting up
 to 8.4GB.

 Using a logical block addressing scheme is attractive primarily
 because it is 100 percent compatible with BIOS Int 13 and allows for
 reduced overhead, producing higher performance.  The logical block
 addressing scheme provides the compatibility essential for personal
 computer usage as well as enables the implementation of higher
 capacity disk drives required for high performance machines.

 Western Digital's LBA scheme has been successfully demonstrated by
 key system manufacturers writing their own BIOS and by those working
 in conjunction with their BIOS suppliers. Systems shipping in
 calendar Q4, 1993 will implement this scheme with the Western Digital
 Caviar AC2540.


 Bypassing the AT-IDE Host Transfer Bottleneck:
 ----------------------------------------------
 The ISA bus capabilities are designed to sustain host throughput data
 rates of roughly 2-3MB/sec. Relative to SCSI host transfer rates of
 5MB, 10MB, and 20MB/sec, the ISA bus is painfully slow for higher
 performance applications. Because AT personal computers did not
 necessarily demand the higher performance obtained by their
 workstation or file server counterparts, 2-3MB/sec wasn't considered
 a limiting factor. In addition, the ISA bus capabilities of 2-3MB/sec
 did not present a throughput problem because data rates coming off
 the media were roughly only 5Mbits/sec, and not a challenge to the
 host throughput.

 As disk drive areal density technologies progressed, media data rates
 began to exceed the 2-3MB/sec ISA host throughput. Buffering either
 on the system or the drive was necessary to maintain performance. The
 industry's most recent drive offerings far exceed the ISA bus host
 throughput by providing media data rates of up to 48Mbit/sec. Due to
 these factors, increased buffering is not a cost effective
 alternative to faster host throughput.


 Fast PIO Transfers:
 -------------------
 Other peripherals within the computer, such as video, resolved their
 throughput problems via local bus architectures providing a potential
 path for improved performance. IDE local bus solutions, leveraged
 from the success of video local bus, began appearing in 1992, as a
 way to enhance data throughput. These solutions mapped the IDE data
 port to the local bus, bypassing the ISA bus and enabling the
 maximization of throughput from the media to the drive buffer, on to
 the host. These solutions were still not competitive with Fast SCSI
 (10MB/sec) due to the "blind" transfer nature of the PIO transfers.
 "Blind PIO" transfers indicate host control of data throughput with
 the host requesting data (master) and the drive responding (slave).
 With blind PIO transfers, the host is unaware or "blind" when
 buffered drive bandwidth is 100% available for host transfers.
 Because there are cases when only a percentage of bandwidth is
 available, blind PIO host requests for data from the drive are based
 on the worst case bandwidth availability. This means that even when
 the ISA bottleneck is bypassed by connection directly to the local
 bus, inability to utilize 100% drive bandwidth prevents full
 optimization of host throughput.

 Enhanced IDE incorporates an operation called "Flow Control Using
 IORDY" (I/O Channel Ready) which allows the drive to "throttle" the
 host when necessary and enable burst transfers to take advantage of
 100% of the bandwidth. Flow Control thereby gives control of the data
 transfer to the drive and eliminates the inefficiencies of blind PIO
 by setting the host to maximum drive bandwidth support. This means
 that when 100% drive bandwidth is available, the drive will take
 control and transfer data to the host.

 This operation, based on approved Mode 3 PIO timings of 180ns cycle
 times from the Small Form Factor Committee, supports transfer rates
 up to 11MB/sec competitive with FAST SCSI solutions. Flow Control is
 enabled on the drive by the host issuing a Set Features command, so
 that both the host and drive side support this operation. Western
 Digital's 540MB drives (shipping beginning September, 1993) support
 flow control using IORDY and will be implemented into machines that
 take advantage of this feature via low cost ASICS whose functionality
 will later be incorporated into core logic chipset solutions.


 DMA Transfers
 --------------
 Although PIO is the standard transfer method supported by the
 industry and presents no incompatibility issues (see footnote),
 another transfer option exists that provides incremental transfer
 benefits beyond PIO. Direct Memory Access (DMA) is based on data
 transfer directly to memory rather than via the CPU. DMA transfers
 are "throttled" and therefore have historically offered the benefit
 of maximizing data throughput. The throttling mechanism associated
 with DMA has historically enabled improved data transfers relative to
 standard PIO.

 Type B DMA was defined with the arrival of Extended Industry Standard
 Architecture (EISA), and is specified at 4.0MB/sec transfer rates
 offering an advantage to the standard 2-3MB/sec PIO data rates.
 Although this is an improvement to the standard ISA bus timings, Type
 B DMA remains uncompetitive with FAST SCSI timings of 10MB/sec.

 With the advent of local bus solutions, a new DMA transfer has
 emerged in conjuction with PCI.  Type F DMA is defined to support
 8.33MB/sec and 6.67MB/sec data rates, a large improvement over Type B
 DMA. In conjunction with chipsets capable of supporting 6.67MB and
 8.33MB/sec data rates, the Small Form Factor Committee has approved a
 new multiword DMA Mode 1 timing specification of a 150ns cycle time.
 This enables DMA transfers up to 13MB/sec for future data rate
 improvement by allowing multiple words to be transferred for any
 given request command. PCI chip sets will be shipping with both EISA
 (Type B) and ISA (Type F) configurations in the calendar CYQ4'1993
 time frame.


 PIO versus DMA:
 ---------------
 The disadvantage of DMA transfer operations is that the PC/AT hard
 disk controller and later IDE, evolved around PIO data transfers.
 Therefore, the system Int 13h BIOS and the embedded operating system
 device drivers have supported PIO transfers versus DMA transfers.
 This simply means that BIOS changes and external device drivers are
 necessary to achieve the incremental performance that DMA offers.

 Western Digital's Enhanced IDE program supports system manufacturers'
 choice of either PIO transfers via Flow control with IORDY for Mode 3
 PIO data rates or DMA transfers (both Type B and Type F) via the
 development of external DMA device drivers supporting Western Digital
 hard disk drives. Product platforms based on both high speed transfer
 options will be in production in calendar fourth quarter 1993.


 Supporting Multiple IDE Devices:
 --------------------------------
 The original IBM PC/AT defined support for two hard disk controllers
 and allowed support for up to four disk drives via a primary and
 secondary controller. The original BIOS and operating system drivers,
 however, only supported the primary controller, limiting the standard
 PC configuration to two disk drives. Today's operating systems now
 offer both primary and secondary controller support providing an
 opportunity to extend peripheral attachment capabilities with IDE.
 The addition of a second connector via a hardware change is a simple,
 low cost solution that allows for multiple IDE peripheral
 connectivity.

 The cost of a second IDE connector is less than $1.00. Most core
 logic and Super I/O devices have already integrated the capability to
 support either the primary or secondary address decode logic and
 therefore the cost of the secondary port is simply the 40 pin
 connector and surrounding transceivers and resistors. For $1.00, dual
 IDE connectors offer support for four IDE devices and satisfy the
 expansion needs of the majority of the mainstream personal computer
 market, a very cost effective alternative to connectivity via SCSI.

 Western Digital's Enhanced IDE program works with system
 manufacturers to understand the BIOS implications of a secondary
 channel for support of two additional IDE devices. The BIOS must be
 able to determine the physical location of the drive based on the Int
 13h drive number . Since DOS 3.0 and later will support up to seven
 disk drives, only the system BIOS Interrupt 13h needs to be modified
 to support primary and secondary IDE. Windows 3.1 accesses the disk
 via Interrupt 13h calls to the BIOS. Again, all that is required is
 modification to the system BIOS to support dual channel IDE. IBM OS/2
 2.0 and 2.1 as well as MS/IBM OS/2 1.31 all support four IDE drives
 on dual IDE connectors via their drivers. Netware is hardcoded to
 support four IDE connectors or 8 IDE devices. Dual channel IDE
 support will be in the final release of Windows NT.

 Dual channel IDE not only enables the cost effective and easy
 implementation to support multiple disk drives, it presents the
 opportunity to expand IDE into non-disk peripheral support. A slow
 speed channel and a high speed channel can be developed for efficient
 implementation of storage solutions via high performance hard disk
 drives and mass data storage vehicles such as CD-ROM and tape drives.


 Enabling Non-disk Peripheral Connectivity:
 ------------------------------------------
 The upcoming high performance desktop machines are demanding
 additional storage peripheral support beyond hard disk drives.
 Specifically, CD-ROM and tape drives will demonstrate rapid unit
 growth rates as these peripherals become a more standard part of the
 desktop's configuration. Today's CD- ROMs and tape drives have
 multiple interfaces that present compatibility and performance
 issues. Development of a standard IDE interface for both CD-ROMs and
 tape drives solves cost, compatibility, performance, and ease-of-use
 issues in conjunction with enabling the attachment of non-disk
 devices via the IDE interface.

 Western Digital, with its AT interface expertise, has taken the
 leadership position in expanding the IDE interface to support
 non-disk peripherals by authoring the AT Attachment Packet Interface
 (ATAPI). The specification defines a standard method for interfacing
 to a CD-ROM drive (and other non-disk devices) utilizing the existing
 ATA host computer hardware and cabling. ATAPI supplements the
 definitions of an ATA mass storage peripheral found in the ATA
 specification and is compatible with existing ATA hardware without
 any changes or additional pins.

 Traditional computer architecture has used a register based transport
 mechanism. Modern architectures now use packet-based transport
 mechanisms. ATAPI is an enhancement to IDE that follows this trend.
 Benefits of including a packet-based scheme means adding very few IDE
 operation codes. The ATAPI specification adds only a single new IDE
 command to obtain functionality and only two additional new IDE
 commands to address compatibility. Once a packet-based interface was
 defined, the next issue was deciding what command packets definitions
 to utilize. Given widespread support for SCSI within peripherals and
 within existing operating systems, it was decided to derive ATAPI
 command packets from SCSI to minimize development time and expense.

 The ATAPI specification is being reviewed by an industry working
 group that consists of market-making system manufacturers, CD-ROM
 suppliers, silicon designers, BIOS developers, and Western Digital.
 The objective is to finalize the ATAPI specification around which
 these companies will design and manufacture products for the personal
 computer industry. Although the exact strategy has yet to be decided
 upon, the document will eventually be submitted to a standards
 committee for adoption.

 Putting it All Together
 ------------------------
     Support for four IDE devices
     Fast IDE port for disk drives
     Slow IDE port for CD-ROMs and tape
     True plug and play
     Lowest cost of connection
     Overlapped I/Os for higher performance


 The Big Picture:
 ----------------
 It is clear that the mass storage needs of the personal computer
 industry are expanding to include higher performance and connectivity
 requirements. Enhanced IDE was developed in response to these
 requirements. The industry is already embracing Enhanced IDE and its
 elements of improved functionality, performance, and connectivity by
 introducing products in the calendar fourth quarter of 1993. These
 products include BIOS support for >528MB IDE hard disk drives, the
 shipment of >528MB IDE drives themselves, silicon and controller
 products supporting fast PIO and DMA transfers, and hardware
 supporting dual channel IDE for multiple device connectivity.
 Momentum in the development of the industry's first standard IDE non-
 disk peripherals is well underway with the industry's first IDE
 CD-ROMs anticipated to ship in calendar first quarter 1994.

 SCSI and IDE Scorecard:
 The industry activity backed by real Enhanced IDE products means that
 IDE has met the challenge in addressing the industry's new
 requirements. IDE's cost effectiveness and compatibility advantages,
 matched now with high performance and connectivity attributes make it
 a solid storage interface solution well into the future. A new
 comparison of the AT/SCSI scorecard reveals the successful approach
 of Enhanced IDE:


 Standard AT Interface
 --------------------
 * The IDE interface supports two disk drives.

 * IDE is a hard disk only interface.

 * The IDE interface is limited to 528MB hard disk capacity as as
   result of the Int 13h BIOS interface used to access IDE drives.

 * The IDE interface is typically limited to 2-3MB/sec host
   throughput.


 With Enhanced IDE
 -----------------
 * The IDE interface supports four IDE devices with dual channel IDE
   and more with multiple IDE connectors.

 * The IDE interface supports non-disk peripherals such as IDE CD-ROM,
   IDE Tape.

 * With LBA, the IDE interface supports up to 8.4G of hard disk
   capacity.

 * With Mode 3 PIO and multiword DMA mode 1, data transfer rates with
   IDE drives can be from 11MB/sec up to 13MB/sec.

 With Enhanced IDE, the IDE interface has become a mass storage
 interface for personal computers and is no longer simply a disk drive
 interface. Enhanced IDE complements SCSI in that it remains primarily
 an internal interface solution with SCSI as an external interface
 solution.

 Western Digital is a registered trademark of Western Digital
 Corporation. All marks mentioned herein belong to other companies.
 PIO transfers are based on using the CPU to perform the data transfer
 (Processor I/O) and is the standard transfer method supported within
 all existing BIOS and all embedded operating system device drivers.
 PIO implies compatibility with existing BIOS/OS and therefore does
 not require added device driver support for operation.


