Evatronix Adds an ATAIF Software Driver to Its Configurable ATAIF Host Controller IP

The new driver complements Evatronix’ hardware controller IP to provide customers with a fast and effective integration with any operating system.

Gliwice & Bielsko-Biala, Poland, October 24th 2007 - The silicon Intellectual Property (IP) provider, Evatronix SA announced today availability of a software driver for its ATAIF – an ATA host controller IP core. This solution allows users to smoothly integrate Evatronix IP core with file management system and to focus on high-level software design, while reducing the time needed to interface their system to a hard disk drive or other nonvolatile memory devices compatible with IDE specification.

ATAIF driver is a complete software package designed to provide the user with a full access to the functionality provided by Evatronix ATAIF host controller. It allows for an easy access to Mass Storage Devices through ATA/ATAPI 6 protocol. The driver can set the ATAIF host to every PIO, MDMA and Ultra-DMA transmission mode of up to 133 MB/s. Support for an internal DMA controller and a minimal memory footprint significantly increase its functionality.

“Initially developed for demonstration and testing of our ATAIF virtual component, the driver together with the IP core now became a fully functional product, which will be offered as a complete ATAIF solution” said Wojciech Sakowski, Evatronix co-President. “It is intended for usage in a wide range of applications due to its flexibility and the ease of integration into systems based on different processors and that run different operating systems. Both: Micrium uC/FS and eCos/FAT systems were effectively implemented on Evatronix EB-5 evaluation board, containing our C68000 processor core and using our ATAIF solution. Such tested compatibility with real-time OS proves the value of our solution, especially for industrial applications.”

Simple API interface of the ATAIF driver consists of four functions: APIInit, APIRead, APIWrite, APICatchError and allows users to build their own applications without the detailed knowledge of the ATAIF controller hardware. An optional error control module uses defined macros to identify errors with unique error code and to provide users with a detailed error descriptions. Therefore any potential software or hardware faults can be spotted by the user at an early stage of debugging process.

ATAIF driver supports simultaneous operations for both master and slave device channels. It is designed to operate in a pooling mode, however functions that demonstrate interrupt support are available as well.

Availability

An ATAIF software driver as well as an ATAIF hardware controller are available now from Evatronix and its distributors as an add-on to the company ATA host controller core (ATAIF).. Evaluation environment based on the EB5 prototyping board is available to interested parties. The reference designs that show integration of our ATAIF driver with uC OS II and eCoS file systems are available for ATAIF core licensees free of charge.