Before you do, I wish you'd consider the difference between an individual thinking of AMD as only a CPU manufacturer, and the more complex realities of this matter. Remember that reality isn't a function of peoples' perceptions (or
misperceptions, as the case may be) of that reality. I'm not really asking you to change that post, but I still think that it's important to eschew
magical thinking when explaining how stuff works to others.
IJS
AHCI is a technical standard defined by Intel.
Yes, I know. I thought I made that clear in my last post. A chain is only as good as it's weakest link, and even Intel doesn't advise using AHCI mode.
Mainboards with AMD chipsets use AMD-written drivers that comply with that standard, and I've never seen anything from AMD warning about issues with AHCI.
While both Intel and AMD make chipsets for their own CPUs, it's not an exclusive thing. There are other chipset makers out there. And personally I wouldn't be so quick to assume that all device drivers
must be written by the chipset maker. I also wouldn't be so naive as to believe that an absence of warning means that everything's hunky dory!
Let's look at some real world examples:
My older Gigabyte motherboard has an Award BIOS for the motherboard. But if you switch to AHCI mode, a separate
option ROM loads. Yes, this option ROM has a copyright notice that says its firmware was written by AMD. But the Linux kernel driver for AHCI was written (or at least maintained) by a guy named
Jeff Garzik, with
Red Hat being the copyright holder, not AMD or Intel.
My newer, but not that new ASUS box has an ASUS motherboard (natch) with Award BIOS that handles AHCI in firmware itself. When I enable AHCI on it, I don't get an option ROM during bootup like I get with the other box, and like everyone gets with their video cards. This motherboard has the Award BIOS (the BIOS is
not part of the chipset, BTW) providing BIOS support for AHCI.
This box is running Windows 7, and although I'm running
Catalyst software to manage all chipset and AMD
and Via drivers, the actual drivers that Windows uses have digital signatures from Microsoft. Ditto for my Intel-based laptop with Windows 7.
Those three boxes don't have RAID cards, but if they did (laptop excepted, of course), it would be the option ROM from the RAID card (and nothing else) that provides the firmware. And, as above, the software drivers would depend on the OS installed. That's how it works!
Otoh, I remember the trouble users had with X-25 SSDs becoming paperweights when a firmware update was performed in AHCI mode, even though it was supposedly supported. More recently, the latest Intel SSD Toolbox software no longer recognises an Intel SSD if an AMD driver is loaded; the previous version had no such issue. So it's fair to say that I don't view Intel as paragons of virtue.
Maybe that's why my early generation Patriot SSD never worked properly, and bricked itself during a firmware upgrade. It has too many bad memories attached to it for me to use it as a paperweight, and it's too light to be a boat anchor, so... :dontknow:
The bottom line (still) is to learn about stuff like AHCI first, and don't forget that it's there and can be shut off if there are problems. MOF that's a pretty good rule of thumb for all sorts of situations, if I do say so myself.
