ATA Device Software for Macintosh Computers

About This Note

This developer note describes the system software that controls ATA (AT-Attachment) devices, such as ATA hard disk drives (sometimes referred to as integrated drive electronics (IDE) drives) installed in a Macintosh computer. This note also provides information for ATAPI (ATA Packet Interface) CD-ROM and PCMCIA (ATA Personal Computer Memory Card International Association) devices.

This note is intended to help experienced Macintosh hardware and software developers design compatible products. If you are unfamiliar with Macintosh computers or would simply like more technical information, you may wish to read the related technical manuals listed in the section Supplemental Reference Documents

This note is published only in electronic form, as an Adobe Acrobat PDF (portable document file) and as HTML. The file is available from two sources:

• on the World Wide Web at <http://developer.apple.com/techpubs/hardware/DeviceManagers/ata/ata_ref/frameset.html >
• on the Reference Library Edition of the Developer CD Series, which is distributed as part of the monthly mailing to registered developers

To use the information in this developer note, you should already be familiar with writing programs for the Macintosh computer that call device drivers to manipulate devices directly. .

Contents of This Note

The information is arranged in three chapters, an appendix, and an index:

• Software for ATA Devices introduces the system software components that control ATA devices installed in a Macintosh computer.
• ATA Driver Reference describes the Macintosh device driver routines provided by the ATA disk driver.
• ATA Manager Reference defines the data structures and functions for ATA Manager.
• Result Code Summary lists the possible result codes returned by the ATA device software for the Mac OS.