Hello-

I am *just* starting to look at SATA technology, specifically at the low level. I know that there are BIST (built in self test) modes, but I am having trouble finding concise information about them. This is NOT for data recovery, more basic interface testing, but I can see that people on this forum know a whole lot more than I do. (My apologies if this is not the right forum.) I am particularly curious if any of the following modes exist:

1) "loopback" mode where the host (mainboard, etc) can transmit data to the device (HDD), and the device just turns right around and spits it back; or

2) "ignore" mode (aka tri-state, high-impedance, etc) where the host (mainboard, etc) can run a number of tests that may violate the interface specification and the far end device just ignores it for a time, so that the host can do some checking on electrical performance (rise/fall-times, over/under-shoot, etc). So that testing of the electrical interface can be verified in-system without disconnecting the HDD device.

3) anything else along those lines ?

thx

re: 1) In my (non-PC) experience, it is necessary to implement HBA-specific programming of PCI registers, to enter & leave BIST loopback modes. Some drives may implement SCT BIST commands, but correct functioning involves the HBA too.

re: 3) You can read the drive's SATA PHY counters (where that is supported by a drive), to get the drive's view of the state of the PHY layer during runtime, even without invoking any BIST functionality. This is standard background health checking on high-end arrays (along with many other such checks)

I would love one of these http://www.flowcad.de/datasheets/LeCroy ... asheet.pdf

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All went well until I plugged the drive in.

How about this one ?

http://www.c-h-s.com/SATA-6G.Datasheet.pdf

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