SATA controller for Amiga computers?

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Micam

Micam

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Hi

I am sure that nobody really knows this, but why is there no SATA controllers for classic Amiga computers? When new Amiga hardware comes out, it's always based around an IDE (PATA) controller.

So is SATA under an expensive patent or i any other ways to expensive to implement on classic hardware?

I know that there are converters from IDE to SATA and SCSI to SATA ;):geek:

/Michael
 
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Amiga supported IDE natively. SATA only ever came on PCI equipped interfaces before PCI-E, which is not native to Amiga, and Amiga's can barely saturate an IDE drive let alone a SATA drive.
Though I think OS4 for classics supports a SIL3114 controller card.
 
qz3fwd said:
Amiga supported IDE natively. SATA only ever came on PCI equipped interfaces before PCI-E, which is not native to Amiga, and Amiga's can barely saturate an IDE drive let alone a SATA drive.
Though I think OS4 for classics supports a SIL3114 controller card.
Click to expand...
Yes, but Amiga also supports SCSI natively, and as you state there are PCI SATA cards (I know they run on OS4.x).
BUT... When new accelerators, and even Vampire (stand alone) only has an IDE interface on it, what is going on? SATA has been a standard for many years now, and if you would like to run your system from a SSD or cheap ODD, then you have to go with slow adapters (or very expensive ones).

My question was, why do new HDD controllers/accelerators not come with SATA? Is it a driver issue? Is it way to complicated to design into the old hardware?
 
Again the Amiga cannot really utilize even the full bandwidth of IDE drives let alone SCSI drives. Add on top of that the likely closed intellectual property of SATA and newer standards and the complexity compared to IDE and I think that is your answer. Don’t get me wrong, I wish something like the BFG had a U320 SCSI controller or SATA/SAS controller onboard but I suspect that skyrockets the complexity and cost? Maybe I am totally wrong. On top of that someone has to write drivers for these things and drivers are not like writing simple side scrolling shooters. They can bring the system to its knees with 1 source code bug.
 
qz3fwd said:
Again the Amiga cannot really utilize even the full bandwidth of IDE drives let alone SCSI drives. Add on top of that the likely closed intellectual property of SATA and newer standards and the complexity compared to IDE and I think that is your answer. Don’t get me wrong, I wish something like the BFG had a U320 SCSI controller or SATA/SAS controller onboard but I suspect that skyrockets the complexity and cost? Maybe I am totally wrong. On top of that someone has to write drivers for these things and drivers are not like writing simple side scrolling shooters. They can bring the system to its knees with 1 source code bug.
Click to expand...
We are on the same page here ;) I agree that we would never get the pleasure of the full speed of SATA, and I don't think that anyone in the retro Amiga community would expect that. But with a Zorro-III board or accelerator you might get a descent speed with low cost SSD that makes no noise and use less power. On my Cyberstorm PPC I get approx 31MB/s on my old SCSI LVD HDD. I know that Zorro-III can't top that, but just the low price of SSD's and the wide availability of them makes sense to have future Amiga classic hardware support SATA (just saying! :geek:).
 
Yes agreed. And adapter boards for SCSI to SATA and other bus combinations are becoming very expensive and hard to find new.
 
I'm not sure what purpose would it have in a long run... especially when you keep in mind the SATA itself is becoming obsolete too. So yeah PATA-SATA bridge is probably the cheapest way if the reason behind it is that SATA hard drives are readily available... Personally my most favorite storage option are just CF cards - super cheap, easy to source, compact (yet not as compact as SD which is advantage for me), can be used in modern machine, IDE-compatible without any complicated electronics (so adapters are super cheap).
 
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http://aminet.net/package/driver/media/pcisata.lha - here's a classic amiga driver if you have Mediator in your A4000.
I don't have mediator, I've been considering to upgrade from MK2 to MK3 to get the UW-SCSI, but decided just to go to BFG9060 and I put in an order on FAST ATA, that way I hope to get at least 6-8mb/s and not 2-3mb/s on ide. I think upcoming Warp 4060 will have some faster harddrive solution, think I read 20mb/s somewhere.
 
So it's not really a driver issue 😃
I would say that CF cards are a cheap way, but in a way it's more 'a computer' when using SATA, where it's cheap and very easy to get SSD, HHD, ODD etc today. I'm just saying that a real SATA controller on a classic Amiga (accelerator) would be nice 😊
 
SSD with SATA is slowly dying since many years. Nowadays it counts as data grave. Most users switch to SSM and M.3 and U.3 is already reality.
 
@StrongARM

Technology moves so rapidly these days. What was thought to be a game changer in the company R&D departments soon gets superseded or enhanced long before the public gets hold of it.

Case in point, just look how fast the humble USB 1 has evolved and changed. Now it's USB 2, 3, USB-C etc.
 
StrongARM said:
SSD with SATA is slowly dying since many years. Nowadays it counts as data grave. Most users switch to SSM and M.3 and U.3 is already reality.
Click to expand...
Yes, but if your looking for an 18TB disk to store your data, then SSD would not be the choice right now. You would still buy an old HDD with SATA. But I agree 100% that M2, M3 etc is what you would buy today... So I'm back with why there is no SATA or M2/3 controllers (on new accelerators) for the classic Amiga's 😉 And yes, it has nothing to do with speed, since we will never get the pleasure of it... IDE/PATA might very soon be limited to second hand.
 
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