On Thu, 23 Dec 2004, Daniel Drake wrote: > I'm fairly new to this and am not too sure on the distinction between ATA and > ATAPI. I'll have to do some reading up, but thanks for the suggestion :)
ATA was the original protocol used for hard disk controllers. ATAPI was an extension that added support for "Packet" commands. Hence the name: ATA plus "Packet Interface". These used the ATA hardware but were a completely different command set, basically duplicating the SCSI commands sets. The intent was to allow cdrom drives (which were originally designed as SCSI devices) to work over the IDE (= ATA) interface. > > Again, I'm stymied without the specs. Is there some ATA-level command you > > can use to find out whether a device supports ATAPI? > > I'm not sure, but I don't think this would help much: both the hp8200 and the > flash readers use the ATA/ATAPI transport. Or are you suggesting that the > hp8200 implements ATA but not ATAPI? Well, the IDENTIFY PACKET DEVICE command looks relevant. Beyond that, you need to rely on appropriate packet commands. INQUIRY is implemented as a packet command; it might be the one you need. Alan Stern ------------------------------------------------------- SF email is sponsored by - The IT Product Guide Read honest & candid reviews on hundreds of IT Products from real users. Discover which products truly live up to the hype. Start reading now. http://productguide.itmanagersjournal.com/ _______________________________________________ linux-usb-devel@lists.sourceforge.net To unsubscribe, use the last form field at: https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/linux-usb-devel
