On Thu, Dec 16, 1999 at 11:22:49AM +0000, David Brownlee wrote:
> 	We already have a 'pciide' vs 'wdc' attachment.
> 	Why not have 'pciide', 'ide', and 'wdc' attachments, allowing the
> 	'ide' driver to keep up with the latest IDE standards and keeping
> 	all the ESDI/MFM legacy code separate. The 'ide' driver can probe
> 	and attach first. If it fails, the 'wdc' driver could try.
> 	
> 	If they both could attach, then pick the one which matches the
> 	most drives :)

This is what I was going to say :)

The present ATA evolutions makes it harder and harder to support pre-ata
hardware (hot-plug is also a problem). I've been thinking for some time now
about a separate driver (which doesn't exclude common parts).
The difference between wdc and ide attachements is easy: if the drive
doesn't anserw to an IDENTIFY or ATAPI IDENTIFY ide will not attach.

--
Manuel Bouyer, LIP6, Universite Paris VI.           Manuel.Bouyer@lip6.fr
     {Net,Free}BSD: 22 ans d'experience feront toujours la difference
--