ATAPI
ATAPI refers to devices that use the Packet Interface of the ATA6 (or higher) standard command set. It is basically a way to issue SCSI commands to a CD-ROM, CD-RW, DVD, or tape drive, attached to the ATA bus.
ATAPI uses a very small number of ATA commands. The most important are the PACKET command (0xA0), and IDENTIFY PACKET DEVICE (0xA1).
Detecting
From a draft copy of the ATA/ATAPI spec (T13 1410D rev 3b, page 365), works on qemu
To detect if a ATA disk is a non-packet or packet device, you can use the presence of a signature stored in the "Sector Count" and "LBA Low,Mid,High" registers (registers 0x1F2-0x1F5 for ATA controllers).
If these registers contain 0x01, 0x01, 0x00, 0x00 - The connected device is a non-packet device, and `IDENTIFY DEVICE` (0xEC) should work. If they contain 0x01, 0x01, 0x14, 0xEB then the device is a packet device, and `IDENTIFY PACKET DEVICE` (0xA1) should be used.
This signature is set/reset when the device is powered on, reset, or receives the `EXECUTE DEVICE DIAGNOSTIC` command (for packet devices, `IDENTIFY DEVICE` also resets the signature)
PACKET command (0xA0)
Each ATAPI command packet is made of a 'command byte' (from the SCSI command set -- see below for a partial list), followed by 11 'data' bytes. For instance, reading the table of contents is achieved by sending the following byte string to the device, as a "command".
uint8_t atapi_readtoc[]= { 0x43 /* ATAPI_READTOC */, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 12, 0x40, 0, 0};
The ATA PACKET command works in three phases, in PIO mode.
Phase 1) Set up the standard ATA IO port registers with ATAPI specific values. Then Send the ATA PACKET command to the device exactly as you would with any other ATA command: outb (ATA Command Register, 0xA0)
Phase 2) Prepare to do a PIO data transfer, the normal way, to the device. When the device is ready (BSY clear, DRQ set) you send the ATAPI command string (like the one above) as a 6 word PIO transfer to the device.
Phase 3) Wait for an IRQ. When it arrives, you must read the LBA Mid and LBA High IO port registers. They tell you the packet byte count that the ATAPI drive will send to you, or must receive from you. In a loop, you transmit that number of bytes, then wait for the next IRQ.
In DMA mode, only the first two phases happen. The device handles the details of phase 3 itself, with the PCI drive controller.
IDENTIFY PACKET DEVICE command (0xA1)
This command is a "normal" ATA PIO mode command, used during initialization. It is an exact mirror of the ATA IDENTIFY command, except that it only returns information about ATAPI devices. Use it in exactly the same way as you use IDENTIFY, for the meanings of the data returned, you can refer to page 107 of this pdf.
Disc Content
Optical media and drives are governed by the MMC part of SCSI specs. They are structured in sessions and tracks. The readable entities are called Logical Track. They are contiguous strings of blocks. Some media types can bear several sessions with several tracks each, others bear only one session with one track.
For more informations about assessing, reading and writing optical media, see the section about Readable Disc Content of article Optical Drive.
x86 Directions
Important note: on the Primary bus, the standard set of ATA IO ports is 0x1F0 through 0x1F7. In much or all of the ATAPI documentation, you will see this set of IO ports called the "Task File". The term seems very confusing.
First, you need to have a buffer. If it is going to be a DMA buffer, it needs to follow the PRD rules (see the ATA/ATAPI using DMA article). If it is going to be a PIO buffer, then you need to know the size of the buffer. Call this size "maxByteCount". It must be an unsigned word, and 0 is illegal for PIO mode. A value of zero is mandatory for DMA mode, no matter what size the PRD buffers are.
Assume that the command is in words Command1 through Command6. Device is the Primary slave. Select the target device by setting the master/slave bit in the Device Select Register. There are no other bits needed.
outb (0x1F6, slavebit<<4);
If the command is going to use DMA, set the Features Register to 1, otherwise 0 for PIO.
outb (0x1F1, isDMA);
The Sectorcount Register and LBA Low Register are unused currently. Send maxByteCount in LBA Mid and LBA High Registers.
outb (0x1F4, (maxByteCount & 0xff));
outb (0x1F5, (maxByteCount >> 8));
Send the ATAPI PACKET command to the Command Register
outb (0x1F7, 0xA0);
Wait for an IRQ, or poll for BSY to clear and DRQ to set.
Then send the ATAPI command as 6 words, to the data port.
outw (0x1F0, Command1);
outw (0x1F0, Command2);
outw (0x1F0, Command3);
outw (0x1F0, Command4);
outw (0x1F0, Command5);
outw (0x1F0, Command6);
Then wait for another IRQ. You cannot poll.
If this was a DMA command (isDMA == 1), then you are done. When the IRQ arrives, the transfer is complete.
If it was a PIO command, when the IRQ arrives, read the LBA Mid and LBA High Registers. This is vital. You told the drive the maximum amount of data to transfer at one time. Now the drive has to tell you the actual transfer size.
Once you have the transfer size (bytecount = LBA High << 8 | LBA Mid), do the PIO transfer.
wordcount = bytecount/2;
loop on inw(0x1F0) or outw(0x1f0) wordcount times.
If the transfer is complete, BSY and DRQ will clear. Otherwise, wait for the next IRQ, and read or write the same number of words again.
Notes: there is a possible future change planned to increase the length of ATAPI command strings to 8 words. Check the two bottom bits of ATAPI Identify word 0 to verify 6 or 8 word command size.
Once again, if you use polling to check BSY, DRQ, and ERR after sending the PACKET command, then you should probably ignore the ERR bit for the first four loops. (ATAPI calls this the "CHECK" bit, instead of ERR, but it means the same thing.)
Complete Command Set
SCSI Command Name | Command Byte (OpCode) |
---|---|
TEST UNIT READY | 0x00 |
REQUEST SENSE | 0x03 |
FORMAT UNIT | 0x04 |
INQUIRY | 0x12 |
START STOP UNIT (Eject device) | 0x1B |
PREVENT ALLOW MEDIUM REMOVAL | 0x1E |
READ FORMAT CAPACITIES | 0x23 |
READ CAPACITY | 0x25 |
READ (10) | 0x28 |
WRITE (10) | 0x2A |
SEEK (10) | 0x2B |
WRITE AND VERIFY (10) | 0x2E |
VERIFY (10) | 0x2F |
SYNCHRONIZE CACHE | 0x35 |
WRITE BUFFER | 0x3B |
READ BUFFER | 0x3C |
READ TOC/PMA/ATIP | 0x43 |
GET CONFIGURATION | 0x46 |
GET EVENT STATUS NOTIFICATION | 0x4A |
READ DISC INFORMATION | 0x51 |
READ TRACK INFORMATION | 0x52 |
RESERVE TRACK | 0x53 |
SEND OPC INFORMATION | 0x54 |
MODE SELECT (10) | 0x55 |
REPAIR TRACK | 0x58 |
MODE SENSE (10) | 0x5A |
CLOSE TRACK SESSION | 0x5B |
READ BUFFER CAPACITY | 0x5C |
SEND CUE SHEET | 0x5D |
REPORT LUNS | 0xA0 |
BLANK | 0xA1 |
SECURITY PROTOCOL IN | 0xA2 |
SEND KEY | 0xA3 |
REPORT KEY | 0xA4 |
LOAD/UNLOAD MEDIUM | 0xA6 |
SET READ AHEAD | 0xA7 |
READ (12) | 0xA8 |
WRITE (12) | 0xAA |
READ MEDIA SERIAL NUMBER / SERVICE ACTION IN (12) | 0xAB / 0x01 |
GET PERFORMANCE | 0xAC |
READ DISC STRUCTURE | 0xAD |
SECURITY PROTOCOL OUT | 0xB5 |
SET STREAMING | 0xB6 |
READ CD MSF | 0xB9 |
SET CD SPEED | 0xBB |
MECHANISM STATUS | 0xBD |
READ CD | 0xBE |
SEND DISC STRUCTURE | 0xBF |
x86 Examples
Here is an example adapted from a working driver implementation.
// Handy register number defines
#define DATA 0
#define ERROR_R 1
#define SECTOR_COUNT 2
#define LBA_LOW 3
#define LBA_MID 4
#define LBA_HIGH 5
#define DRIVE_SELECT 6
#define COMMAND_REGISTER 7
// Control register defines
#define CONTROL 0x206
#define ALTERNATE_STATUS 0
static __inline void insw(uint16_t __port, void *__buf, unsigned long __n) {
__asm__ __volatile__("cld; rep; insw"
: "+D"(__buf), "+c"(__n)
: "d"(__port));
}
static __inline__ void outsw(uint16_t __port, const void *__buf, unsigned long __n) {
__asm__ __volatile__("cld; rep; outsw"
: "+S"(__buf), "+c"(__n)
: "d"(__port));
}
// This code is to wait 400 ns
static void ata_io_wait(const uint8_t p) {
inb(p + CONTROL + ALTERNATE_STATUS);
inb(p + CONTROL + ALTERNATE_STATUS);
inb(p + CONTROL + ALTERNATE_STATUS);
inb(p + CONTROL + ALTERNATE_STATUS);
}
// Reads sectors starting from lba to buffer
int read_cdrom(uint16_t port, bool slave, uint32_t lba, uint32_t sectors, uint16_t *buffer) {
// The command
volatile uint8_t read_cmd[12] = {0xA8, 0,
(lba >> 0x18) & 0xFF, (lba >> 0x10) & 0xFF, (lba >> 0x08) & 0xFF,
(lba >> 0x00) & 0xFF,
(sectors >> 0x18) & 0xFF, (sectors >> 0x10) & 0xFF, (sectors >> 0x08) & 0xFF,
(sectors >> 0x00) & 0xFF,
0, 0};
outb(port + DRIVE_SELECT, 0xA0 & (slave << 4)); // Drive select
ata_io_wait(port);
outb(port + ERROR_R, 0x00);
outb(port + LBA_MID, 2048 & 0xFF);
outb(port + LBA_HIGH, 2048 >> 8);
outb(port + COMMAND_REGISTER, 0xA0); // Packet command
ata_io_wait(port); // I think we might need this delay, not sure, so keep this
// Wait for status
while (1) {
uint8_t status = inb(port + COMMAND_REGISTER);
if ((status & 0x01) == 1)
return 1;
if (!(status & 0x80) && (status & 0x08))
break;
ata_io_wait(port);
}
// Send command
outsw(port + DATA, (uint16_t *) read_cmd, 6);
// Read words
for (uint32_t i = 0; i < sectors; i++) {
// Wait until ready
while (1) {
uint8_t status = inb(port + COMMAND_REGISTER);
if (status & 0x01)
return 1;
if (!(status & 0x80) && (status & 0x08))
break;
}
int size = inb(port + LBA_HIGH) << 8
| inb(port + LBA_MID); // Get the size of transfer
insw(port + DATA, (uint16_t *) ((uint8_t *) buffer + i * 0x800), size / 2); // Read it
}
return 0;
}
Detecting a Medium's Capacity
A medium is any media inserted in the ATAPI Drive, like a CD or a DVD. By using the 'SCSI Read Capacity' command, you can read the last LBA of the medium, then you calculate the medium's capacity using this relationship:
Capacity = (Last LBA + 1) * Block Size;
Last LBA and Block Size are returned after processing the command. Almost all CDs and DVDs use blocks with size of 2KB each.
Processing this command goes in the following algorithm:
- Selecting the Drive [Master/Slave].
- Waiting 400ns for select to complete.
- Setting FEATURES Register to 0 [PIO Mode].
- Setting LBA1 and LBA2 Registers to 0x0008 [Number of Bytes will be returned].
- Sending Packet Command, then Polling.
- Sending the ATAPI Packet, then polling. ATAPI packet must be 6 words long (12 bytes).
- If there isn't an error, reading 4 Words [8 bytes] from the DATA Register.
The ATAPI packet should be in this formulation:
bit→ ↓byte |
7 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
0 | Operation code = 25h | |||||||
1 | LUN | Reserved | RelAdr | |||||
2 | LBA (MSB) LBA (LSB) | |||||||
3 | ||||||||
4 | ||||||||
5 | ||||||||
6 | Reserved | |||||||
7 | Reserved | |||||||
8 | Reserved | PMI | ||||||
9 | Control | |||||||
10 | Reserved* | |||||||
11 | Reserved* |
Note: The last two reserved fields are ATAPI specific. They are not part of the SCSI command packet version.
The special control fields in the CDB have the following meaning:
- RelAdr - indicates that the logical block address (LBA) value is relative (only used with linked commands).
- PMI - partial medium indicator:
- 0 - return value for the last LBA
- 1 - return value for the last LBA after which a substantial delay in data transfer will be encountered (e.g., the current track or cylinder)
The target will return capacity data structured as follows:
bit→ ↓byte |
7 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
0–3 | Returned LBA | |||||||
4–7 | Block length in bytes |
If there is an error after polling, there may be no medium inserted, so this command may be also used to detect whether there is a medium or not, and if there is a medium, its capacity is read.
Operating Theory
Quoting The Guide to ATA/ATAPI documentation (stanford.edu)
Hosts control ATAPI devices using SCSI command packets. The SCSI command packets are transported over the ATA interface, instead of the parallel SCSI bus. This cool hack is described in ATA/ATAPI-6. The set of SCSI command packets applicable to all SCSI devices is described in the SCSI-3 Primary Commands PDF. Again, ATAPI devices don't implement all of these, so it's best to consult the associated ATAPI spec for a device. CD-ROM command packets were originally described in INF-8020 PDF. This document contains many inaccuracies in its description of the ATA bus interface, so please double check any statements against ATA/ATAPI-6. (Unfortunately, some of those inaccuracies were implemented!)
Comments
See Also
Articles
External Links
- http://www.t10.org/ -- T10, the group that creates the SCSI (and therefore ATAPI) command set.
- http://www.t10.org/ftp/x3t9.2/document.87/87-106r0.txt -- Direct link to 1987 documentation of SCSI commands related to CD-ROMS. Old but useful.
- http://www.ata-atapi.com -- Public Domain C driver sourcecode, including SATA, Busmatering DMA, ATAPI -- not perfect, but good.
- The Guide to ATA/ATAPI documentation
- Old document about ATA/ATAPI errata
- ATA-2 draft ATA-1 was HDD-only, ATA-2 enables CD-ROM support via ATAPI spec
- ISO 60908:1999 CD-DA aka Red Book
- ECMA-130 CD-ROM aka Yellow Book or ISO/IEC 10149:1995
- Draft of the original ATAPI CD-ROM spec (PDF) Has partial list of CD-ROM ATAPI commands. MANY errors. If something in this document looks wrong to you, it IS wrong. It is still very informative.
- http://www.osta.org/specs/pdf/udf201.pdf -- UDF filesystem format PDF
- http://www.osdever.net/downloads/docs/iso9660.zip -- ISO 9660 filesystem format
- http://bmrc.berkeley.edu/people/chaffee/jolspec.html -- Joliet filesystem specification
- http://www.osdever.net/downloads/docs/susp112.zip -- Rock Ridge Filesystem Sharing Protocol (POSIX)
- http://www.osdever.net/downloads/docs/rrip112.zip -- Rock Ridge Interchange specification (POSIX)
- https://ata.wiki.kernel.org/index.php/Developer_Resources -- Overview of ATA, SATA, ATAPI and related specifications