From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S263819AbTJ1CEJ (ORCPT ); Mon, 27 Oct 2003 21:04:09 -0500 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S261506AbTJ1CEJ (ORCPT ); Mon, 27 Oct 2003 21:04:09 -0500 Received: from vladimir.pegasys.ws ([64.220.160.58]:39953 "EHLO vladimir.pegasys.ws") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S263824AbTJ1CEB (ORCPT ); Mon, 27 Oct 2003 21:04:01 -0500 Date: Mon, 27 Oct 2003 18:03:56 -0800 From: jw schultz To: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Subject: Re: Blockbusting news, results end Message-ID: <20031028020356.GN8540@pegasys.ws> Mail-Followup-To: jw schultz , linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org References: <20031027205854.GF8540@pegasys.ws> <20031027225727.GI8540@pegasys.ws> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <20031027225727.GI8540@pegasys.ws> User-Agent: Mutt/1.3.27i X-Message-Flag: The contents of this message may cause confusion and disorientation to persons think they know everything. Read at your own risk. Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org On Mon, Oct 27, 2003 at 02:57:27PM -0800, jw schultz wrote: > On Mon, Oct 27, 2003 at 02:27:09PM -0800, Andre Hedrick wrote: > > > > To date IDEMA has not released a formal spec for drive makers to switch to > > 4Kb sectors. If they have, then when running in compatibility mode, a > > heavy read-modify-write happens to goto the pseudo sector of 512b. > > > > Linux can not handled new IDEMA calls currently. > > Irrelevant! Andre, if you were trying to say what i am about to, i apologise. > I am assuming that these numbers are applicable (one is > unknown): > logical sector size == 512B > physical sector size == ???B > page size/filesystem block size == 4KB I have dialoged with Eric Mudama. He is 99% sure that no manufacturer of is making ATA drives with physical sectors larger than 512B. I'll let that statement trump Norman Diamond's until i hear otherwise. The drive manufacturers would like to be able to go to a larger physical sector but the read-modify-write is just too scary. If they could be sure of market acceptance of drives that required all I/O to be in larger units they would build them because it would allow greater capacity (and i'm guessing speed as well) on the same physical hardware. I look forward to the day with Linux has enough market-share to influence the hardware manufacturers. In any case, unless someone can authoritatively contradict Eric we can ignore the firmware read-modify-write implications of unreadable sectors. End-of-subthread! or in the words of Emily Latella "Never-mind".