ATA-ATAPI.COM
ATA/ATAPI Q and A

ATA/ATAPI Q and A

• How do I get new OS drivers for my CD/DVD device?
  PLEASE READ THIS!
• What is the current ATA/ATAPI standard?
  ATA/ATAPI-7, but use ATA/ATAPI-6 unless you need information on a specific ATA/ATAPI-7 feature.
• What is T13 working on now?
  T13 is working on ATA-8.
• What is Serial ATA (SATA)?
  It is a serial interface version of the ATA interface. See: Everything you need to know about SATA.
• Where is the Serial ATA (SATA) specification?
  The Serial ATA specification (it is NOT a standard) was created by a "secret society". Until recently in order to get a copy of the this specification you or your company needed to be a member of this "secret society". Recently the "secret society" has made their specification available to the public. See Serial ATA web site . In early 2003 the SATA-1 specification was turned over to T13 so that it could become part of ATA/ATAPI-7 (volume 3).
• What is Fireware?
  Is is IEEE 1394.
• What is IEEE 1394?
  A 20 year old idea for a serial data bus.
• Why IEEE 1394?
  Sony thinks it is the greatest way to transfer digital video data.
• Why not use IEEE 1394 for mass storage devices?
  It is too expensive, too slow and may be too unreliable.
• What are DRM, CSS, CPPM and CPRM?
  These are various "digital rights management", "content protection" or "copy protection" schemes promoted mostly by the US entertainment industry.
• What do K and M represent?
  If you think it is something other than 1000 and 1000000 then you need to get up-to-date! Read Definitions of the SI units The twenty SI prefixes and also read Definitions of the SI units The binary prefixes . Note that the mass storage industry generally uses the correct definition of K and M.
• What do I need to build an MP3 player using an ATAPI CD-ROM device as the data storage device?
  See below.
• Can I run UltraDMA44/66/100/133 (UltraDMA modes 3, 4, 5 and 6) without an 80 conductor cable?
  NO.
• Can I use UltraDMA44/66/100/133 devices on a system that does not support UltraDMA44/66/100/133?
  YES.
• Can I use older devices on a system that supports UltraDMA44/66/100/133?
  YES.
• Is SFF-8020 (INF-8020) the correct, valid and current description of the ATAPI interface?
  NO.
• Should I expect disk data corruption if I over clock my CPU or PCI bus?
  YES.

Also see:

• ATA and ATA/ATAPI History
• HIW How It Works Documents

MP3 Players using ATAPI CD-ROM Drives

So you want to build an MP3 player that uses an ATAPI CD-ROM drive as the data storage device?

First, you should find a different project!

Second, you should look all the projects just like this that have been implemented by hundreds of people around the world.

So you still want to do this project?

OK, you will need the following:

• A real good understanding of the ATA interface. Read the ATA/ATAPI-4 standard from cover to cover at least three times. Visit the T13 web site to find these documents.
• The SCSI SAM, SPC, SBC and MMC (or MMC-2) standards. DO NOT use the old and obsolete SFF-8020 (INF-8020) document. Remember that an ATAPI CD-ROM drive is really a SCSI device and that ATAPI is just one of many SCSI physical transport layers. Visit the ANSI NCITS T10 web site to find these documents.
• Visit the MP3 Projects web site: MP3 Projects
• Hale Landis' ADVDRVR, ATADRVR or MINDRVR C Source code. You will find ADVDRVR, ATADRVR and MINDRVR at this web site.
• A real good understanding of how an ATAPI CD-ROM drive works. Use ATA-ATAPI.COM's ATADEMO program to play around with commands to an ATAPI CD-ROM drive attached to a x86 system. You will find ATADEMO at this web site.
• Lots of time. This is not a simple project. You will have to do a fair amount of hardware design and lots of firmware. Pick a microprocessor that has good software development tools!
• And again, visit the MP3 Projects web site: MP3 Projects

Page updated 26 Dec 2005.