What is native/ legacy mode, and can I use DS3 bios on a S3

[Dug]

Using one dvd/rw on IDE and one WD SATA drive hooked up to the Intel port.

Once everything is installed and updated, shouldn't I be able to change to native mode? If I do I get about 4MB's on hdtach. In legacy mode I get the usual 70MB-50MB's.

Not using any drivers for the jmicro controller, that seems to screw everything up.

Also just read about F7 bios and was wondering if I can use this on the S3 when it's available.

 

[Celeryman]

Actually, Gigabyte will most likely release an F6 bios for the S3 which is identical to the F7 bios for the DS3.

 

[Peter]

IDE/SATA controllers can run legacy mode, where they occupy the same resources that legacy hard disk controllers have always occupied since 1983, ISA style with an exclusive IRQ. All generic HDD drivers of any operating system can handle this mode. The drawback is that you can't have more than two such units.

Then there's native mode, wherein the IDE/SATA interface stops pretending to be an ISA device and does pure PCI instead - occupying a freely movable set of resources and a shareable interrupt. This mode requires proprietary or at least native-mode-aware generic drivers; what it buys you is the possibility for having more than two IDE/SATA interface controllers.

Some modes of operation in SATA interfaces, like RAID or AHCI, require native configuration mode.

Discrete IDE/SATA interfaces on PCI or PCIE chips cannot do legacy mode; these are native-only by nature.

Performance difference is non-existant.