2009-05-14 17:01:31     Serial ATA / SATA host controller with the BF537

2009-05-14 17:01:31     Serial ATA / SATA host controller with the BF537

Konstantin Hartwich (GERMANY)

Message: 74083   

hi

ist there anyone having some experience on embedding SATA?

i am using a BF537, and there was the idea of embedding an SATA controller in addition to the BF537, to be able to keep up with harddisks of newer generation without having to use the PATA / SATA bridge adapters.

now, i googled quite a bit, finding that apropriate controllers are hard to find, and those we could use, are almost all with PCI or PCI/X (PCI express) connection on the back end, solutions from Silicon Image i.e. the only one with a parallell interface was a solution from intel, but reeeeealy expensive, around 30 $. but even there, there were problems.

since the BF537 does not have any kind of PCI connection, like the BF535 i think, there is no option to connect to such a device. the BF535 in turn, although lacks a ethernet MAC, could easily adapt all nessessary hardware extensions, like the ethernet controller from Broadcom, or the SATA controller..

does anyone of you guys have any idea how to prevent loosing step in development with IDE / PATA connections? is there any possibility to come away from PATA offering another solution, SATA? i perfectly know that it would be a hard thing, and performance of 3 GB/s is quite impossible with the BF series.. but is there ANY other way to connect SATA to BF but PCI, in a parallell way, something like common io or memory space?

apreciate your thoughts

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2009-05-14 20:02:52     Re: Serial ATA / SATA host controller with the BF537

Frank Van Hooft (CANADA)

Message: 74084   

If you're able to implement a parallel ATA interface, you might want to consider adding a PATA-to-SATA chip. Such chips are fairly common for the cheap ($10) PATA-SATA adaptor boards you can buy at the computer store. Like this one:

www.satacables.com/html/sata_to_ide_adapter.html

Several manufacturers make chips like these; here's one:

www.jmicron.com/Product_JM20330.htm

Hope this helps.

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2009-05-15 01:39:46     Re: Serial ATA / SATA host controller with the BF537

Konstantin Hartwich (GERMANY)

Message: 74085   

thanks a lot,

seems to be the only possible solution, right?

to implement PATA interface is pretty much straight forwards, so to speak it *is* the kind of a parallel interface from a BF537 towards any other storage solution

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2009-05-15 13:23:40     Re: Serial ATA / SATA host controller with the BF537

Frank Van Hooft (CANADA)

Message: 74112   

That's my best guess. PATA is pretty simple. It's an easy 16-bit parallel interface. I even implemented one on a little microcontroller a few years ago just by bit-bashing. I kinda doubt you're going to find an easier interface to SATA than that.

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