VIA Falcon IDE Storage Device Driver Package External Release Note

 

Update Date: 2007/05/03

. Introduction

. Driver Version Inside This Package

. Supported Operation System

. Supported Storage Controller/Functionality

. File Description

. Known Issue

. Limitation

. Release History

Introduction

VIA Falcon device driver package is a setup package for user to install VIA IDE controllers and it is composed of MiniIDE driver and SATAIDE driver both. MiniIDE driver is in charge of VIA PATA controller insides all VIA South-Bridge chips. Oppositely SATAIDE driver manages VIA SATA controller insides VIA South-Bridge Chips. MiniIDE driver provides DMA capability for VIA PATA IDE controllers and SATAIDE driver provides hot-plug capability on VIA SATA IDE controller and support port multiplier device on some VIA South-Bridges chips’ SATA IDE controllers. For the detail of functionality, please refer with Supported Storage Controller/Functionality section.

 

Driver Version Inside This Package

Driver

Target Platform

Version

MiniIDE

2K/XP/Server2003 driver

6.0.5728.170

XP-x64/Server 2003-x64 driver

SATAIDE

2K/XP/Server2003 driver

6.0.6000.212

XP-x64/Server 2003-x64 driver

VISTA/VISTA-x64 driver

 

Supported Operation System

Driver

Microsoft Windows Operation System

 

32-bits Platform

64-bits Platform

9X

ME

NT4.0

2K

XP

Srv03

Vista

XP

Srv03

Vista

MiniIDE

[*1]

X

X

X

O

O

O

X

O

O

X

SATAIDE

[*2]

X

X

X

O

O

O

O

O

O

O

*1.      For Windows 9X/ME/NT platforms, MiniIDE driver does not support it, please visit VIA Arena web site, http://www.viaarena.com/, to download proper driver for your VIA PATA IDE controller. For Windows Vista platform, please use the in-box IDE driver that is supplied with the Windows Vista operating system.

*2.      For Windows 9X/ME/NT platforms, SATAIDE driver does not support it, please visit VIA Arena web site, http://www.viaarena.com/, to download proper driver for your VIA SATA IDE controller.

 

Supported Storage Controller/Functionality

VIA Falcon IDE storage device driver package doesn’t support VIA RAID controller and VIA AHCI controller.  It supports VIA IDE controller ONLY.

 

Driver

Product Name

Chipset Version

Device ID

Controller Type

Hot-Plug

Port Multiplier

Host Port

Device Port

MiniIDE

All SB [*1]

All

0571

PATA

X

X

X

VT6410

All

3164

PATA

X

X

X

SATAIDE

VX700/CX700/VX800 [*2] [*3]

≥ A2

0581

PATA/SATA

O

O

O

≥ A2

5324

VT8237A [*3]

≥ A3

0591

SATA

O

O

O

≥ A3

5337

VT8237R/ VT8237[*4]

All

3149

SATA

O

X

X

VT8251 [*3]

≥ A6

3349

SATA

O

X

X

≥ A6

5287

VT8237S

≥ A1

5372

SATA

O

O

O

*1.      It supports all VIA South-Bridge Chips which contained 0571 PATA controller.

*2.      Only support Hot-Plug and Port Multiplier functionalities on SATA channel.

*3.      Due to the change of VIA Device ID definition Policy for Storage Class Devices, some IDE adapter (on this product) will still use 0581h, 0591h or 3349h (depends on product)  as its Device ID even if it is working under IDE mode. VIA suggests all BIOS providers should follow VIA Device ID definition Policy for Storage Class Devices in order to let driver be correctly workable for VIA SATA controllers.

*4.      Only VT8237A2 is verified at this driver package release time. If the chips’ version is smaller than this version, we can’t make sure it can be supported till we have verified it and listed it at this table.

 

Field Definitions:

       Driver                       - The driver which used to support IDE controller.

       Product Name           - Supported chipset product by driver.

       Chipset Version         - The oldest chipset version which can be supported by driver.

       Device ID                  - PCI Device ID of IDE controller.

       Controller Type         - The type of IDE controller, we define three types as follows.

PATA             - All of channels on this IDE controller are parallel channels.

SATA            - All of channels on this IDE controller are serial channels.

PATA/SATA    - It contains parallel channel and serial channel both.

Hot Plug                   - Plug and play functionality supporting by driver.

       Host Port                  - The host port is the port that is used to connect the SATA devices to the host.

       Device Port               - A device port is a port that can be used to connect a device to the Port Multiplier.

       Port Multiplier           - A Port Multiplier is a mechanism for one active host connection to communicate with multiple devices.

 

File Description

Setup Package File

0X0409.INI,        INSTMSIA.EXE,    INSTMSIW.EXE,   ISSCRIPT.MSI,

License.rtf,      PCIENUM.SYS,     README.TXT,      SETUP.EXE,

Setup.ini,          SETUP.ISS,         SETUP.MLF,         SETUP.SCF,

viasetup.dll,    VIASetup.msi     Readme.html

English.slf,      asia.slf,           europe1.slf,      europe2.slf

europe3.slf,      165x300.bmp,      500x60.bmp

 

MiniIDE Driver File

vminiide.inf, videX32.sys, videX64.sys