Hard disk drive interface
Disk interface families
Disk drive interfaces have evolved from simple interfaces requiring complex controllers to attach to a computer into high level interfaces that present a consistent interface to a computer system regardless of the internal technology of the hard disk drive. The following table lists some common HDD interfaces in chronological order:
Acronym or abbreviation | Meaning | Description |
---|---|---|
SMD | Storage Module Device | Bit serial data interface introduced by CDC Standard interface for many mini-computers in the 1970s and 1980s. |
SASI
|
Shugart Associates System Interface | ANSI into SCSI (SASI is a compatible subset of the first version of SCSI).
|
ST-412 RLL
|
Bit serial data interfaces introduced by Seagate Technology beginning 1980. Standard interfaces for most small HDDs in the 1980s and early 1990s. | |
SCSI | Small Computer System Interface | ANSI and introduced in mid 1980s; Standard interfaces for most enterprise HDDs in this century; superseded by SAS |
ESDI | Enhanced Small Disk Interface | ANSI and first introduced by Maxtor in late 1980s.A higher data rate follow on to the ST-506 family into the mid-1990s, superseded by SCSI |
(P)ATA IDE |
(Parallel) AT Attachment Integrated Drive Electronics |
ANSI ; successor to ST-412/506/ESDI. Standard HDD interface on all but enterprise HDDs until superseded by SATA
|
SATA
|
Serial ATA | ANSI and introduced in 2003.Most common interface for all but enterprise HDDs. |
SAS
|
Serial Attached SCSI | ANSI and introduced in 2004.Most common interface for enterprise HDDs. |
Early interfaces
The earliest hard disk drive (HDD) interfaces were bit serial data interfaces that connected an HDD to a controller with two cables, one for control and one for data.[a] An additional cable was used for power, initially frequently AC but later usually connected directly to a DC power supply unit. The controller provided significant functions such as serial/parallel conversion, data separation, and track formatting, and required matching to the drive (after formatting) in order to assure reliability. Each control cable could serve two or more drives, while a dedicated (and smaller) data cable served each drive.
Examples of such early interfaces include:
- Many early IBM drives, e.g., IBM 2311,[1] had such an interface.
- The SMD interface was popular on minicomputers in the 1970s.
- MFM(Modified Frequency Modulation) for the data encoding method.
- ST412, an RLL(Run Length Limited) encoding variants.
- Enhanced Small Disk Interface (ESDI) was an industry standard interface similar to ST412 supporting higher data rates between the processor and the disk drive.
In bit serial data interfaces the data frequency, data encoding scheme as written to the disk surface and error detection all influenced the design of the supporting controller. Encoding schemes used included
Enhanced Small Disk Interface (ESDI) was an attempt to minimize controller design time by supporting multiple data rates with a standard data encoding scheme; this was usually negotiated automatically by the disk drive and controller; most of the time, however, 15 or 20 megabit ESDI disk drives were not downward compatible (i.e. a 15 or 20 megabit disk drive would not run on a 10 megabit controller). ESDI disk drives typically also had jumpers to set the number of sectors per track and (in some cases) sector size.
Word serial interfaces
Historical Word serial interfaces connect a hard disk drive to a bus adapter[b] with one cable for combined data/control. (As for all early interfaces above, each drive also has an additional power cable, usually direct to the power supply unit.) The earliest versions of these interfaces typically had an 8 bit parallel data transfer to/from the drive, but 16-bit versions became much more common, and there are 32 bit versions. The word nature of data transfer makes the design of a host bus adapter significantly simpler than that of the precursor HDD controller.
- CTL-I (Controller Interface)[3] was an 8-bit word serial interface introduced by IBM for its mainframe hard disk drives beginning with the 3333 in 1972.[4] The 3333 was the first unit in a string of up to eight 3330 type hard disk drives; it contained a CTL-I controller and two 3330 type disk drives. Subsequently, the first drive (containing a CTL-I controller) in a string of drives was designated by IBM as an A-unit.[5] The drives within an A-unit and all other drives in a string had interfaces similar to the early interfaces, above. A-units connected to IBM Directors or integrated attachments.
- high voltage differential(HVD). ("Low" and "High" voltages for differential SCSI are relative to SCSI standards and do not meet the meaning of low voltage and high voltage as used in general electrical engineering contexts, as apply e.g. to statutory electrical codes; both LVD and HVD use low voltage signals (3.3 V and 5 V respectively) in general terminology.)
- . The interface for 80-conductor only has 39 pins, the missing pin acting as a key to prevent incorrect insertion of the connector to an incompatible socket, a common cause of disk and controller damage.
Bit serial interfaces
Modern bit serial interfaces connect a hard disk drive to a host bus interface adapter (today in a PC typically integrated into the "south bridge") with one data/control cable. Each drive also has an additional power cable, usually direct to the power supply unit.
- DECs Standard Disk Interconnect (SDI) was an early example of a modern bit serial interface.
- Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop (FC-AL) connection topology is used. FC has much broader usage than mere disk interfaces, and it is the cornerstone of storage area networks (SANs). Recently other protocols for this field, like iSCSI and ATA over Ethernet have been developed as well. Confusingly, drives usually use copper twisted-pair cables for Fibre Channel, not fibre optics. The latter are traditionally reserved for larger devices, such as servers or disk array controllers.
- FireWire, and differential SCSI.
- Serial Attached SCSI (SAS). The SAS is a new generation serial communication protocol for devices designed to allow for much higher speed data transfers and is compatible with SATA. SAS uses a mechanically identical data and power connector to standard 3.5-inch SATA1/SATA2 HDDs, and many server-oriented SAS RAID controllers are also capable of addressing SATA hard drives. SAS uses serial communication instead of the parallel method found in traditional SCSI devices but still uses SCSI commands.
Notes
- IBM 2305
- ^ Today typically integrated but separate boards or boxes in early embodiments
References
- ^ IBM 2311 Field Engineering Theory of Operation, October 1967, Chapter 3 and Fig. 3-1
- ^ "Reed Solomon Codes – Introduction"
- ^ IBM 3880 Storage Control,Models 1, 2, 3, and 4 Description Manual, GA26-1661-9. September 1987
- ^ Via 'New Attachment Strategy' IBM Meant to Frustrate PCMs
- ^ IBM 3990 Storage Control Reference: GLOSSARY, GA32-0099-06, © Copyright IBM Corp. 1988, 1994
- ^ “Intelligent systems interface eases peripheral integration,” H. Meyer & J. Korpi, Electronic Design, August 20, 1981, pp. 97-103
External links
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