What's AHCI?

[pkilway01]

Can anyone explain what AHCI is and what it's good for?

 

[DarkRogue]

Advanced Host Controller Interface.
Prerequisite for certain SATA features such as Native Command Queuing (NCQ) and hot swapping ability.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AHCI

 

[tcsenter]

Originally posted by: pkilway01
Can anyone explain what AHCI is and what it's good for?

For added clarification, it may help to think of "AHCI" first and foremost as an 'official' specification (originally developed by Intel and later standardized). While "AHCI" the specification embodies the standardized way to implement support for advanced SATA features, it is not the only way this support can be implemented.

NVIDIA used its own proprietary implementation to support NCQ, hot-plug, and other advanced SATA features on NForce 2 through most of the NForce 5 variants, largely because the 'official' SATA specs did not cover these features and 'AHCI' was primarily an 'Intel thing' early on. Later, the relevant industry peeps adopted Intel AHCI as the standard.

So even though 'advanced host controller interface' is really a generic description and probably has been used in reference to other things, it is also the proper name or title of a legally protected specification.

 

[DarkRogue]

lol, that's more in-depth information than the wiki - thanks!

 

[Old Hippie]

Originally posted by: tcsenter

Originally posted by: pkilway01
Can anyone explain what AHCI is and what it's good for?

For added clarification, it may help to think of "AHCI" first and foremost as an 'official' specification (originally developed by Intel and later standardized). While "AHCI" the specification embodies the standardized way to implement support for advanced SATA features, it is not the only way this support can be implemented.

NVIDIA used its own proprietary implementation to support NCQ, hot-plug, and other advanced SATA features on NForce 2 through most of the NForce 5 variants, largely because the 'official' SATA specs did not cover these features and 'AHCI' was primarily an 'Intel thing' early on. Later, the relevant industry peeps adopted Intel AHCI as the standard.

So even though 'advanced host controller interface' is really a generic description and probably has been used in reference to other things, it is also the proper name or title of a legally protected specification.

Perfect. It otta be a stickie! :thumbsup: