Samsung ATA-133?

[LunarMist]

Is the SP1604N a true ATA-133 drive? I ask because my Firewire bridges (ADS/Oxford 911) do not see more than 128GB of space except on Matrox drives. I think that is because the Western Digital and Seagate drives are ATA-100 only and that there is something about the bridges that needs more than just the 48-bito LBA.

I have 1870GB total capacity in Maxtor drives - all greater than 128MB. Most of them use the drive bays. I want about another 800GB so the low price, low noise and Tony's recommendation for Samusung reliability are major factors in deciding. But if only 128GB are seen the SP1604N would not be of any value.

 

[Mercutio]

IIRC, Maxtor is the only company to actually adopt the ATA/133 designation. Everybody else calls their drives ATA100. This is semantics. If it's bigger than 128GB, it needs LBA48 support.

Large numbers of Firewire and USB2 enclosures do seem to have a 120GB limit. Some newer models advertise that they support larger drives. I believe this is a limitation of the bridge chipset (Oxford 911 in your case), not a problem with the drive itself.

 

[Buck]

Correct Mercutio, UDMA-133 (ATA/ATAPI-7 standard) is not a requirement for 48-bit LBA (48-bit LBA was fully defined in the ATA/ATAPI-6 specification), plus if there is a LBA or translation limitation, it is not with the drive. Although the Oxford 911 chip is one of the best performing FireWire bridges around, it is not trouble free.

By the way, the Marvell 88i8030 PATA-to-SATA bridge chip that most hard drive manufactures use has a UDMA-133 interface on it. I wonder how many manufacturers have implemented the UDMA-133 speed in order to tweak as much performance out of their bridge arrangements as possible. That must be why Seagate’s native SATA solutions do not out perform the bridged solutions from their competitors.

 

[LunarMist]

IIRC, Maxtor is the only company to actually adopt the ATA/133 designation. Everybody else calls their drives ATA100. This is semantics. If it's bigger than 128GB, it needs LBA48 support.

But if my ten Maxtor drives of 160GB or greater capacity work on the FW bridges, then they must support 48-LBA, no? According to Samsung the drive is ATA-7 and the transfer rate is 133MB/sec, so I thought it must be an ATA/133 drive. http://www.samsung.com/Products/Har...HardDiskDrive_SpinPointPSeries_SP1614N_sp.htm