Command Compliance Testing for ATA & SATA disk drives

This paper will describe a command compliance test to be used on ATA and SATA disk drives. A command compliance test should issue any task register command to any serial ATA or ATA disk drive and record the results of the command. This method of ATA/SATA testing allows the user to confirm whether a given ATA or SATA disk drive complies with the published ATA specifications, as well as to test non-standard or vendor unique commands. For reference, ATA and Serial ATA documentation can be found at www.T13.org.

• Introduction
• Requirements
• Hardware Requirements
• User Requirements
• Test Methodology
• Normal and error status
• Note:
• Exceptions
• Idle and Standby
• Sleep
• Security Freeze
• Determining the drive ’s capabilities and state
• The STB ATA/SATA Command Compliance Test
• Test Execution
• Customizing the test source code
• Opening the project
• Adding your own commands
• Defining ATA/SATA commands
• Special command sequence issues
• Commands issued during Non-Destructive test
• Using BAM to confirm testing
• The next step – automating ATA/SATA Command Compliance testing in the STB Suite Disk Manufacturing Module (DMM)
• Summary
• Further Information