AHCI (ADVANCED HOST CONTROLLER INTERFACE)

• The (AHCI) specification describes the register-level interface for a Host Controller for Serial ATA 1.0a and Serial ATA II.

Scope:

• AHCI encompasses a PCI device.
• It contains a PCI BAR (Base Address Register)
  to implement native SATA features.

AHCI specifies the following features :

• o Support for 32 ports
  o 64-bit addressing
  o Elimination of Master / Slave Handling
  o Large LBA support
  o Hot Plug
  o Power Management
  o HW Assisted Native Command Queuing
  o Staggered Spin-up
  o Cold device presence detect
  o Serial ATA superset registers
  o Activity LED generation
  o Port Multiplier

Requirements for AHCI :

• Intel® Matrix Storage Technology software
• Hard drive(s) that supports NCQ
• Intel® chipsets using a controller hub that supports AHCI

AHCI requires Intel® Matrix Storage Manager Software and is built into chipsets with
the following controller hubs :

• Intel® 82801FBM I/O Controller Hub (ICH6M) - AHCI only
• Intel® 82801GHM I/O Controller Hub (ICH7MDH) - RAID only
• Intel® 82801GBM I/O Controller Hub (ICH7M) - AHCI only
• Intel® 82801GR I/O Controller Hub (ICH7R) - RAID and AHCI
• Intel® 82801HR/HH/HO I/O Controller Hub (ICH8R) - RAID and AHCI
• Intel® 82801FR I/O Controller Hub (ICH6R) - RAID and AHCI
• Intel® 82801GH I/O Controller Hub (ICH7DH) - RAID and AHCI
• Intel® 631xESB/632xESB I/O Controller Hub - RAID and AHCI