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AHCI(4) 		     Kernel Interfaces Manual			 AHCI(4)

NAME
     ahci -- Serial ATA Advanced Host Controller Interface driver

SYNOPSIS
     To compile this driver into the kernel, place the following lines in your
     kernel configuration file:

	   device pci
	   device scbus
	   device ahci

     Alternatively, to load the driver as a module at boot time, place the
     following line in loader.conf(5):

	   ahci_load="YES"

     The following tunables are settable from the loader(8):

     hint.ahci.X.msi
     controls Message Signaled Interrupts (MSI) usage by the specified
     controller.

	   0	 MSI disabled;
	   1	 single MSI vector used, if supported;
	   2	 multiple MSI vectors used, if supported (default);

     hint.ahci.X.ccc
     controls Command Completion Coalescing (CCC) usage by the specified
     controller.  Non-zero value enables CCC and defines maximum time (in ms),
     request can wait for interrupt, if there are some more requests present on
     controller queue.	CCC reduces number of context switches on systems with
     many parallel requests, but it can decrease disk performance on some
     workloads due to additional command latency.

     hint.ahci.X.direct
     controls whether the driver should use direct command completion from
     interrupt thread(s), or queue them to CAM completion threads.  Default
     value depends on number of MSI interrupts supported and number of
     implemented SATA ports.

     hint.ahci.X.em
     controls whether the driver should implement virtual enclosure management
     device on top of SGPIO or other interface.  Default value depends on
     controller capabilities.

     hint.ahcich.X.pm_level
     controls SATA interface Power Management for the specified channel,
     allowing some power to be saved at the cost of additional command latency.
     Possible values:

	   0	 interface Power Management is disabled (default);
	   1	 device is allowed to initiate PM state change, host is passive;
	   2	 host initiates PARTIAL PM state transition every time port
		 becomes idle;
	   3	 host initiates SLUMBER PM state transition every time port
		 becomes idle.
	   4	 driver initiates PARTIAL PM state transition 1ms after port
		 becomes idle;
	   5	 driver initiates SLUMBER PM state transition 125ms after port
		 becomes idle.

     Some controllers, such as ICH8, do not implement modes 2 and 3 with NCQ
     used.  Because of artificial entering latency, performance degradation in
     modes 4 and 5 is much smaller then in modes 2 and 3.

     Note that interface Power Management complicates device presence detection.
     A manual bus reset/rescan may be needed after device hot-plug, unless
     hardware implements Cold Presence Detection.

     hint.ahcich.X.sata_rev
     setting to nonzero value limits maximum SATA revision (speed).  Values 1, 2
     and 3 are respectively 1.5, 3 and 6Gbps.

     hw.ahci.force
     setting to nonzero value forces driver attach to some known AHCI-capable
     chips even if they are configured for legacy IDE emulation.  Default is 1.

DESCRIPTION
     This  driver  provides  the CAM(4) subsystem with native access to the SATA
     ports of AHCI-compatible controllers.  Each SATA port found is  represented
     to  CAM  as a separate bus with one target, or, if HBA supports Port Multi-
     pliers, 16 targets.  Most of the bus-management details are handled by  the
     SATA-specific transport of CAM.  Connected ATA disks are handled by the ATA
     protocol  disk  peripheral driver ada(4).	ATAPI devices are handled by the
     SCSI protocol peripheral drivers cd(4), da(4), sa(4), etc.

     Driver features include support for Serial ATA and ATAPI devices, Port Mul-
     tipliers (including FIS-based switching, when supported), hardware  command
     queues (up to 32 commands per port), Native Command Queuing, SATA interface
     Power Management, device hot-plug and Message Signaled Interrupts.

     Driver  supports  "LED" enclosure management messages, defined by the AHCI.
     When supported by hardware, it allows to control per-port activity,  locate
     and  fault  LEDs via the led(4) API or emulated ses(4) device for localiza-
     tion and status reporting purposes.  Supporting AHCI controllers may trans-
     mit that information to the  backplane  controllers  via  SGPIO  interface.
     Backplane	controllers  interpret received statuses in some way (IBPI stan-
     dard) to report them using present indicators.

HARDWARE
     The ahci driver supports AHCI compatible controllers  having  PCI	class  1
     (mass storage), subclass 6 (SATA) and programming interface 1 (AHCI).

     Also,  in	cooperation with atamarvell and atajmicron drivers of ata(4), it
     supports AHCI part of legacy-PATA + AHCI-SATA combined controllers, such as
     JMicron JMB36x and Marvell 88SE61xx.

     The ahci driver also supports AHCI devices that  act  as  PCI  bridges  for
     nvme(4) using Intel Rapid Storage Technology (RST).  To use the nvme(4) de-
     vice,  either one must set the SATA mode in the BIOS to AHCI (from RST), or
     one must accept the performance with RST enabled due to interrupt	sharing.
     FreeBSD will automatically detect AHCI devices with this extension that are
     in  RST  mode.  When that happens, ahci will attach nvme(4) children to the
     ahci device.

FILES
     /dev/led/ahci*.*.act     activity LED device nodes

     /dev/led/ahci*.*.fault   fault LED device nodes

     /dev/led/ahci*.*.locate  locate LED device nodes

SYSCTL
     dev.ahcich.X.disable_phy
	     Set to 1 to disable the phy for the drive on channel X.  Set  to  0
	     to  enable  the  phy.   Useful for turning off troublemakers.  Also
	     useful for debugging when you need the ada drive to come and go.

SEE ALSO
     ada(4), ata(4), cam(4), cd(4), da(4), sa(4), ses(4)

HISTORY
     The ahci driver first appeared in FreeBSD 8.0.

AUTHORS
     Alexander Motin <mav@FreeBSD.org>

FreeBSD ports 15.1		December 17, 2021			 AHCI(4)

Want to link to this manual page? Use this URL:
<https://man.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=ahci&sektion=4&manpath=FreeBSD+15.1-RELEASE+and+Ports>

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