Inside Windows Storage: Server Storage Technologies for Windows® 2000, Windows® Server 2003, and Beyond

2.3. Mini IDE Driver Model

Windows Server 2003 ships with a new mini IDE driver model that is meant to replace the existing IDE driver model. The new port driver supplied by Microsoft is faster, caters to multiple channels, and allows desegregation of channel interfaces and control interfaces. The new driver model provides more flexibility to disk vendors; for example, the vendor-written miniport driver may alter the timeout request value and also choose whether the I/O will be accomplished with DMA or PIO on a per-request basis. Microsoft appears to recognize that ATA devices may play a more important role in the future and is evolving the driver model for ATA devices. Hopefully a future edition of this book will provide more details as the ...