Silicon Image 680 IDE chipset question...

[Mini-Me]

Howdy.
:)

I have here an IDE card based on the Silicon Image 680 chip.

I have scanned all their datasheets, and read the product briefs, but no-where does it address this question:

- What is the largest capacity HDD which can be connected to the SI680?

...I need a PCI IDE controller which can support HDD's 500GB or larger...

Most IDE cards you can buy, make use of the SI680, so I just need to know it's limitations...

Thanks for any replies.
:)

[Paul Komski]

I think that the next functional barrier after 128/137.4 is going to be the 2TB barrier (which would be imposed by both 32 and 64 bit windows - up to XP) and not by the ATA specification which next jumps to the enormous 144 PetaBytes.

Vista may be a bit different if it has new generation hard drives with greater than the norma (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/923332)l 512 byte sector size.

As a generalisation then if the hardware and OS support 48bit LBA it should be possible to go all the way to the 2TB barrier. In theory anyway.

[Mini-Me]

Cool, thanks. :)

[Paul Komski]

The "2TB barrier" (some say the 2.2TB since (2^32)*512 = 2,199,023,256,000 bytes), as already indicated, is an OS-related barrier. It has already had to be considered when creating large arrays and you can read a bit about it in a pdf white paper (http://www.thinkcp.com/PDF/AMCC_3ware_whitepaper.pdf).

I have heard that WinXP's defragmenter has a 1TB limit which is a related, though different, problem.

These issues and related workarounds are obviously just around the corner and I guess we are going to hear more and more about them as time passes. It looks as if both hardware RAID as well as the creation of dynamic volumes (which have their own databases as a means of "keeping track") under the NT-based OSes will be prominent features in this regard.

I would forsee the likelihood that special external enclosures for large drives, combined into arrays on the external's hardware, could become prominent for very large data storage solutions.

PS It might amuse to look at a thread in another forum (http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1104443) and, in particular, at the number of SATA cables in #13.

[Mini-Me]

Post #13 on that thread is quite impressive!
From what I can see, he/she has at least 15 SATA drives in there!!!

My God!!!!
:eek: