- The Advanced Host Controller Interface (AHCI) specification describes the register-level interface for a host controller for Serial ATA. The specification includes a description of the interface between system software and the host controller hardware.
- Secondly, insofar as your SATA drives are concerned, whether set for AHCI or RAID, they are still operating in AHCI mode and the performance will be the same. RAID can be used with NVMe drives, but only provided they are configured for redirection and only if they are all connected to PCIe lanes from the chipset (the PCH component).
- Advanced Host Controller Interface (AHCI) is an open host controller interface published and used by Intel, which has become a de facto standard. It allows the use of advanced features of SATA such as hotplug and native command queuing (NCQ).
- What is Standard SATA AHCI Controller? The full form of AHCI is Advanced Host Controller Interface. An AHCI is a hardware technical standard defined by Intel to specify SATA (Serial ATA). It is a host bus adapter and is made to provide a standardized way to detect, configure and programme adapters.
With a SATA storage controller, AHCI and IDE are 2 operating modes that enable a hard drive to communicate with the rest of the computer system, but there are some differences. As you might know, a SATA hard drive can operate in a backward-compatible PATA or IDE mode, a standard AHCI mode, or vendor-specific RAID.
Advanced Host Controller Interface | |
Latest version | 1.3.1 November 11, 2011 |
---|---|
Organization | Intel |
Website | www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/io/serial-ata/ahci.html |
The Advanced Host Controller Interface (AHCI) is a technical standard defined by Intel that specifies the operation of Serial ATA (SATA) host controllers in a non-implementation-specific manner in its motherboard chipsets.
The specification describes a system memory structure for computer hardware vendors to exchange data between host system memory and attached storage devices. AHCI gives software developers and hardware designers a standard method for detecting, configuring, and programming SATA/AHCI adapters. AHCI is separate from the SATA 3 Gbit/s standard, although it exposes SATA's advanced capabilities (such as hot swapping and native command queuing) such that host systems can utilize them. For modern solid state drives, the interface has been superseded by NVMe.[1]
As of December 2019, the current version of the specification is 1.3.1.
Operating modes[edit]
Many SATA controllers offer selectable modes of operation: legacy Parallel ATA emulation (more commonly called IDE Mode), standard AHCI mode (also known as Native Mode), or vendor-specific RAID (which generally enables AHCI in order to take advantage of its capabilities). Intel recommends choosing RAID mode on their motherboards (which also enables AHCI) rather than AHCI/SATA mode for maximum flexibility.[2] Legacy mode is a software backward-compatibility mechanism intended to allow the SATA controller to run in legacy operating systems which are not SATA-aware or where a driver does not exist to make the operating system SATA-aware.
When a SATA controller is configured to operate in IDE Mode, the number of storage devices per controller is usually limited to four (two IDE channels, master device and slave device with up to two devices per channel), compared to the maximum of 32 devices/ports when configured in AHCI mode.[3][4] But the chipset SATA interfaces may emulate more than one 'IDE controller' when configured in IDE Mode.
Operating system support[edit]
AHCI is supported out of the box on Windows Vista and later, Linux-based operating systems (since version 2.6.19 of the kernel), OpenBSD (since version 4.1), NetBSD (since version 4.0), FreeBSD (since version 8.0),[5]macOS, ArcaOS,[6]eComStation (since version 2.1), and Solaris 10 (since version 8/07).[7]DragonFlyBSD based its AHCI implementation on OpenBSD's and added extended features such as port multiplier support. Older versions of operating systems require hardware-specific drivers in order to support AHCI. Windows XP and older do not provide AHCI support out of the box.
System drive boot issues[edit]
Some operating systems, notably Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 8.1 and Windows 10, do not configure themselves to load the AHCI driver upon boot if the SATA controller was not in AHCI mode at the time the operating system was installed. Although this is an easily rectifiable condition, it remains an ongoing issue with the AHCI standard.
The most prevalent symptom for an operating system (or systems) that are installed in IDE mode (in some BIOS firmware implementations otherwise called 'Combined IDE mode'), is that the system drive typically fails to boot, with an ensuing error message, if the SATA controller (in BIOS) is inadvertently switched to AHCI mode after OS installation. In Microsoft Windows the symptom is a boot loop which begins with a Blue Screen error, if not rectified - and through no fault of Microsoft Windows.
Technically speaking, this is an implementation bug with AHCI that can be avoided, but it has not been fixed yet. As an interim resolution, Intel recommends changing the drive controller to AHCI or RAID before installing an operating system.[2] (It may also be necessary to load chipset-specific AHCI or RAID drivers at installation time, for example from a USB flash drive).
On Windows Vista and Windows 7, this can be fixed by configuring the
msahci
device driver to start at boot time (rather than on-demand). Setting non-AHCI mode (i.e. IDE or Combined mode) in the BIOS will allow the user to boot into Windows, and thereby the required registry change can be performed. Consequently, the user then has the option of continuing to use the system in Combined mode or switching to AHCI mode.[8]With Windows 10, this can be fixed by forcing the correct drivers to reload during Safe Mode.[9]In Windows 8, Windows 8.1 and Windows Server 2012, the controller driver has changed from
msahci
to storahci
,[10] and the procedures to upgrade to the AHCI controller is similar to that of Windows 7.[11] On Windows 8, 8.1 and Windows Server 2012, changing from SATA mode to AHCI mode without first updating the registry will make the boot drive inaccessible (i.e. resulting in a recurring boot loop, which begins with a Blue Screen error).In Windows 10, after changing the controller to AHCI mode, if the OS is allowed to reboot a couple of times after the start of the boot loop, which starts with an INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE BSOD, Windows presents recovery options. Out of the Advanced options, if Startup Repair option is selected, Windows attempts to fix the issue and the PC begins to function normally.
A similar problem can occur on Linux systems if the AHCI driver is compiled as a kernel module rather than built into the kernel image, as it may not be included in the initrd (initial RAM disk) created when the controller is configured to run in Legacy Mode. The solution is either to build a new initrd containing the AHCI module, or to build the AHCI driver into the kernel image.[12]
Power management[edit]
Power management is handled by the Aggressive Link Power Management (ALPM) protocol.
See also[edit]
- Open Host Controller Interface (OHCI)
- Universal Host Controller Interface (UHCI)
- Enhanced Host Controller Interface (EHCI)
- Extensible Host Controller Interface (XHCI)
- Wireless Host Controller Interface (WHCI)
References[edit]
- ^'NVMe vs. SATA: Which SSD Technology Is Faster?'. www.howtogeek.com. Retrieved 2020-10-10.
- ^ ab'Intel Matrix Storage Technology - Changing and/or choosing Serial ATA Modes'. Intel. Retrieved 2007-09-30.
- ^'PCI IDE Controller Specification 1.0'(PDF). Berg Software Design. Retrieved 2015-05-03.
- ^'Serial ATA AHCI: Specification, Rev. 1.3.1'. Intel Corp. Retrieved 2015-05-03.
- ^https://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?ahci(4)
- ^'ArcaOS Changelog'. Retrieved 2020-08-24.
- ^'What's New in the Solaris 10 8/07 Release - Driver Enhancements'. Oracle. Retrieved 2010-10-20.[permanent dead link]
- ^'Error Message when you start a Windows 7 or Windows Vista-based computer after you change the SATA mode of the boot drive: 'STOP 0x0000007B INACCESSABLE_BOOT_DEVICE''. Microsoft. Archived from the original on 24 May 2011. Retrieved 2011-04-20.
- ^'Enabling AHCI mode AFTER Windows 10 installation'. tenforums.com user Toobad. Retrieved 2015-12-19.
- ^'StorAHCI replaces MSAHCI (Windows)'. Microsoft.
- ^'Improving performance of SATA drives on Windows 2012'.
- ^'Support | How to enable AHCI support after install'. Novell.com. Retrieved 2014-05-11.
External links[edit]
- 'AHCI Specification'. Intel.
- 'AHCI'. OSDev Wiki
Retrieved from 'https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Advanced_Host_Controller_Interface&oldid=990667605'
Contents:
It is reported that on Windows 10, there always exists a SATA AHCI controller driver compatibility problem. After updating to Windows 10, your Windows 7 SATA AHCI controller driver can no longer be compatible with Windows 10. And this driver problem shows itself from sleeping to shutting down or restarting.
For the purpose of solving this Standard SATA AHCI Controller Windows 10 driver missing by way of updating its driver, have you mastered the concept of Standard SATA AHCI controller?
What is Standard SATA AHCI Controller?
As the abbreviation of Advanced Host Controller Interface, AHCI is a hardware mechanism defined by Intel to specify the SerialATA (SATA) host bus adapter and is designed to provide a standardized way to detect, configure and programme SATA/AHCI adapters.
You need to figure out several confusing concepts related to AHCI.
What Are the Differences Between AHCI and IDE?
It is a long time confusion that people always mistake AHCI for IDE (short for Integrated Drive Electronics), which is the storage interface. Both of AHCI and IDE are the modes in which a hard drive communicates with Windows 10, 7, 8 by SATA controller driver.
However, compared with IDE, AHCI runs faster and possesses with more advantages, such as hot-plugging and native command queuing. To put it in simple words, IDE is the best for the older operating system, whereas AHCI is designed for Windows 10.
But a well-known demerit of AHCI is its incompatibility. So this is why here you are supposed to download or update Standard SATA AHCI Controller driver for Windows 10.
What Are the Differences Between SATA and AHCI?
SATA refers to Serial ATA interface which can operate on AHCI and IDE and performs at high data speed. For one thing, AHCI adds more functionalities such as hot plugging and NCQ to SATA also used for storage media. For another thing, AHCI is new programming standard defining a new mode for SATA. But besides AHCI mode, there are other modes for SATA, such as IDE and RAID mode.
What Does the IDE, AHCI and RAID Mode Mean for SATA?
These three modes denote different meanings for SATA in BIOS settings.
IDE mode: applied in previous windows system without hot plugging and NCQ capabilities. Usually for Parallel ATA (PATA) era hard disks.
AHCI mode: for Windows 10 with new features providing for SATA.
RAID mode: a storage technology shifting multiple tasks to a single unit can be divided into RAID 0 to 6 according to different disk drives.
Update Standard AHCI Controller Driver on Windows 10
Now that you have learned about what AHCI is, to fix the Standard SATA AHCI Controller driver issue or to simply update its AHCI controller driver, you are capable of using several different ways to download the latest AHCI controller drivers for Windows 10.
Download Standard AHCI Controller Driver via Device Manager
1. Go to Device Manager.
2. Aim at and expand IDE ATA/ATAPI Controller and right click the Standard SATA AHCI Controller to Update driver.
3. Choose Search automatically for updated driver software.
4. Windows 10 searches for the updated driver on your PC and online.
After that, you will have downloaded and installed the best and latest Standard SATA AHCI controller driver for Windows 10. And this AHCI driver incompatibility issue can also disappear from your computer.
Download Standard SATA AHCI Controller Driver Automatically
Driver Booster can be a perfect tool for you if you feel like to download or update Standard SATA AHCI Controller driver for Windows 10. It is safe enough to get the latest AHCI drivers to solve the Standard SATA AHCI Controller driver problems.
Download Driver Booster and installed it on your PC, you can run it to help you update the Windows 10 AHCI controller drivers.
1. Hit Scan. Therefore Driver Booster is authorized to search for your PC of the outdated or corrupted driver.
2. Select IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers, and click Update button.
Or you can select all outdated driver and click Update Now to get all the outdated drivers to be downloaded or updated on Windows 10.
At this point, you will have gained the ways to download or update Standard SATA AHCI Controller driver for Windows 10 and also something like the differences between IDE and AHCI, including their merits and demerits on Windows 10.
Intel Sata Ahci Controller Driver
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