xref: /freebsd/share/man/man4/ahci.4 (revision 9bd497b8354567454e075076d40c996e21bd6095)
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26.\" $FreeBSD$
27.\"
28.Dd August 24, 2009
29.Dt AHCI 4
30.Os
31.Sh NAME
32.Nm ahci
33.Nd Serial ATA Advanced Host Controller Interface driver
34.Sh SYNOPSIS
35To compile this driver into the kernel,
36place the following lines in your
37kernel configuration file:
38.Bd -ragged -offset indent
39.Cd "device pci"
40.Cd "device scbus"
41.Cd "device ahci"
42.Ed
43.Pp
44Alternatively, to load the driver as a
45module at boot time, place the following line in
46.Xr loader.conf 5 :
47.Bd -literal -offset indent
48ahci_load="YES"
49.Ed
50.Pp
51The following tunables are settable from the loader:
52.Bl -ohang
53.It Va hint.ahci.X.msi
54controls Message Signaled Interrupts (MSI) usage by the specified controller
55.Bl -tag -compact
56.It 0
57MSI disabled;
58.It 1
59single MSI vector used, if supported (default);
60.It 2
61multiple MSI vectors used, if supported;
62.El
63.It Va hint.ahci.X.ccc
64controls Command Completion Coalescing (CCC) usage by the specified controller.
65Non-zero value enables CCC and defines maximum time (in ms), request can wait
66for interrupt, if there are some more requests present on controller queue.
67CCC reduces number of context switches on systems with many parallel requests,
68but it can decrease disk performance on some workloads due to additional
69command latency.
70.It Va hint.ahcich.X.pm_level
71controls SATA interface Power Management for specified channel,
72allowing some power to be saved at the cost of additional command
73latency.
74Possible values:
75.Bl -tag -compact
76.It 0
77interface Power Management is disabled (default);
78.It 1
79device is allowed to initiate PM state change, host is passive;
80.It 2
81host initiates PARTIAL PM state transition every time port becomes idle;
82.It 3
83host initiates SLUMBER PM state transition every time port becomes idle.
84.It 4
85driver initiates PARTIAL PM state transition 1ms after port becomes idle;
86.It 5
87driver initiates SLUMBER PM state transition 125ms after port becomes idle.
88.El
89Some controllers, such as ICH8, do not implement modes 2 and 3 with NCQ used.
90Because of artificial entering latency, performance degradation in modes
914 and 5 is much smaller then in modes 2 and 3.
92.Pp
93Note that interface Power Management is not compatible with
94device presence detection.
95You will have to reset bus manually on device hot-plug.
96.It Va hint.ahcich.X.sata_rev
97setting to nonzero value limits maximum SATA revision (speed).
98Values 1, 2 and 3 are respectively 1.5, 3 and 6Gbps.
99.El
100.Sh DESCRIPTION
101This driver provides the CAM subsystem with native access to the
102.Tn SATA
103ports of AHCI-compatible controllers.
104Each SATA port found is represented to CAM as a separate bus with one
105target, or, if HBA supports Port Multipliers, 16 targets.
106Most of the bus-management details are handled by the SATA-specific
107transport of CAM.
108Connected ATA disks are handled by the ATA protocol disk peripheral driver
109.Xr ada 4 .
110ATAPI devices are handled by the SCSI protocol peripheral drivers
111.Xr cd 4 ,
112.Xr da 4 ,
113.Xr sa 4 ,
114etc.
115.Pp
116Driver features include support for Serial ATA and ATAPI devices,
117Port Multipliers, hardware command queues (up to 32 commands per port),
118Native Command Queuing, SATA interface Power Management, device hot-plug
119and Message Signaled Interrupts.
120.Pp
121The Port Multiplier FIS Based Switching feature added in the AHCI 1.2
122specification, which is required for effective parallel operation of devices
123behind Port Multipliers, is not yet supported.
124.Pp
125AHCI hardware is also supported by ataahci driver from
126.Xr ata 4
127subsystem. If both drivers are loaded at the same time, this one will be
128given precedence as the more functional of the two.
129.Sh HARDWARE
130The
131.Nm
132driver supports AHCI compatible controllers having PCI class 1 (mass storage),
133subclass 6 (SATA) and programming interface 1 (AHCI).
134.Sh SEE ALSO
135.Xr ada 4 ,
136.Xr cd 4 ,
137.Xr da 4 ,
138.Xr sa 4 ,
139.Xr scsi 4 ,
140.Xr ata 4
141.Sh HISTORY
142The
143.Nm
144driver first appeared in
145.Fx 8.0 .
146.Sh AUTHORS
147.An Alexander Motin Aq mav@FreeBSD.org .
148