[Arm-netbook] SATA and IDE memory-addressable ICs

[Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton]

On Sun, Apr 4, 2010 at 9:56 PM, Michelle Konzack
<linux4michelle at tamay-dogan.net> wrote:
> Hello Luke,
>
> Am 2010-04-04 21:24:53, hacktest Du folgendes herunter:
>> michelle, hi,
>>
>> do you know of any SATA or IDE chips which are memory-addressable with
>> that 16-bit "shared-data/address" bus?  i _hope_ it is called "general
>> purpose memory bus".
>
> You want to map it into a free Data/Adressspace of  an  ARM  controllers
> external memory?  No, not currently.

 ahh, what about ATMEL's AT78C5091? it is a single-channel SATA to 8
or 10 bit parallel bus.  do you have a contact at ATMEL that you could
ask?

>  Only PCI/PCIe based ones.

 ... and that means having a PCI/PCI-e chip which, well... yeah, it
could be done... but if going for PCI-e then might as well just have
that alone, and let people put in a micro PCI-e SSD rather than use
SATA.

> I would go with a USB version of this controller,  OK, I  know  this  is
> double work, but there are USB Host Controllers which can be maped  into
> the memory space and then you can use any USB/SATA controllers you like.

 ahh, but there are some people asking about doing better than the
480mbps of USB-2.

>> and, if so, do you what are sample pricing, 1k and 5k volume prices?
>>
>> some people on the gpx forums are asking about SATA controllers, and
>> i'm building up the survey and i want to include it as a price option
>> for people.
>
> I had several times the need for an ATAPI/ATA/SATA  controller  but  not
> found one.

 hmmm...

> Generaly the ATAPI Protocoll is not very difficult and  can  implemented
> in a 75MHz 8051 Flash controller with less then 32 kByte of Flash memory

 interesting idea!

> CF-Cards are ATAPI compatibel...

yes.  i was surprised about that.

> Maybethis woud work less expensive for us then looking for a dedicated
> SATA/ATAPI controller which are mostly rather expensive mean 7+ US$.

 yes - and what is more, it would fit nicely with the principle of a
100% free software machine: stuff the dedicated hardware, do it
yourself.

 and, also, i think it would be easier to get hold of, there are
people saying that they too have tried getting hold of SATA PHY chips
and not been able to get them, for absolutely ages.

 l.