aha/Documentation/ide/ide-tape.txt
Borislav Petkov 4735f22cc1 ide-tape: remove pipelined mode description from Documentation/ide/ide-tape.txt
Signed-off-by: Borislav Petkov <petkovbb@gmail.com>
Signed-off-by: Bartlomiej Zolnierkiewicz <bzolnier@gmail.com>
2008-04-27 15:38:28 +02:00

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/*
* IDE ATAPI streaming tape driver.
*
* This driver is a part of the Linux ide driver.
*
* The driver, in co-operation with ide.c, basically traverses the
* request-list for the block device interface. The character device
* interface, on the other hand, creates new requests, adds them
* to the request-list of the block device, and waits for their completion.
*
* The block device major and minor numbers are determined from the
* tape's relative position in the ide interfaces, as explained in ide.c.
*
* The character device interface consists of the following devices:
*
* ht0 major 37, minor 0 first IDE tape, rewind on close.
* ht1 major 37, minor 1 second IDE tape, rewind on close.
* ...
* nht0 major 37, minor 128 first IDE tape, no rewind on close.
* nht1 major 37, minor 129 second IDE tape, no rewind on close.
* ...
*
* The general magnetic tape commands compatible interface, as defined by
* include/linux/mtio.h, is accessible through the character device.
*
* General ide driver configuration options, such as the interrupt-unmask
* flag, can be configured by issuing an ioctl to the block device interface,
* as any other ide device.
*
* Our own ide-tape ioctl's can be issued to either the block device or
* the character device interface.
*
* Maximal throughput with minimal bus load will usually be achieved in the
* following scenario:
*
* 1. ide-tape is operating in the pipelined operation mode.
* 2. No buffering is performed by the user backup program.
*
* Testing was done with a 2 GB CONNER CTMA 4000 IDE ATAPI Streaming Tape Drive.
*
* Here are some words from the first releases of hd.c, which are quoted
* in ide.c and apply here as well:
*
* | Special care is recommended. Have Fun!
*
* Possible improvements.
*
* 1. Support for the ATAPI overlap protocol.
*
* In order to maximize bus throughput, we currently use the DSC
* overlap method which enables ide.c to service requests from the
* other device while the tape is busy executing a command. The
* DSC overlap method involves polling the tape's status register
* for the DSC bit, and servicing the other device while the tape
* isn't ready.
*
* In the current QIC development standard (December 1995),
* it is recommended that new tape drives will *in addition*
* implement the ATAPI overlap protocol, which is used for the
* same purpose - efficient use of the IDE bus, but is interrupt
* driven and thus has much less CPU overhead.
*
* ATAPI overlap is likely to be supported in most new ATAPI
* devices, including new ATAPI cdroms, and thus provides us
* a method by which we can achieve higher throughput when
* sharing a (fast) ATA-2 disk with any (slow) new ATAPI device.
*/