“Have a look at the some of the newly released Linux
distributions, such as Linux-Mandrake 7.1 or SuSE Linux 6.4. They
all have native support for Ultra DMA 66 (also known as “Ultra
ATA/66” or “UDMA/66”). What is UDMA/66? Will your system support
UDMA/66? Never fear, Brian’s here!“
“UDMA/66 is an extension of the ATAPI specification for devices
which attach to an IDE controller. Currently there are five
supported Ultra DMA modes (numbered 0 to 4). The higher mode number
designates a faster data transfer between the controller and the
drive. Transfer rates are commonly measures in Megabytes per second
(MB/s).”
“Mode 0 and Mode 1 transfer data at 16.6 MB/s and 25 MB/s,
respectively. UDMA/33, which is on most every computer made in the
past few years, is Ultra DMA Mode 2 — this transfers data at 33.3
MB/s. Mode 3 transfers at 44.4 MB/s. Mode 4 is UDMA/66, which moves
data at 66.6 MB/s. Any controller or drive that supports a higher
mode (say Mode 4) will also support any lower mode, so older drives
still work with newer controllers, and newer drives work with older
controllers.”