| Understanding VIA IDE driver choices Introduction
Microsoft windows operating systems are provided with default Microsoft IDE drivers. VIA engineers develop IDE storage drivers specifically for VIA chipsets, with the aim to provide extra features, added performance and enhanced compatibility, especially developed for VIA Parallel ATA (PATA) and Serial ATA (SATA) controllers.
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VIA chips featuring a PATA controller only
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VIA SATA only discrete controllers
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VIA chips featuring both PATA and SATA controllers
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VT686A, VT686B, VT8231, VT8235
VT6410
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VT6420
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VT8237/VT8237Plus/VT8237R, VT8251, VT8237A, VX700/CX700
VT6421
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There are 2 main VIA IDE storage driver choices for VIA chipset based systems. This guide seeks to provide users with a summary of the benefits of each VIA IDE storage driver and which operating systems and controllers they support, so that users can ascertain whether they are relevant to their system.
Current VIA IDE storage driver package for new VIA chipsets:
- VIA V-RAID driver
- VIA IDE Falcon Storage driver
(Note: The VIA PATA/SATA IDE driver package (which was previously called the VIA MiniIDE driver) became part of the VIA IDE Falcon Storage driver with version 2.10A, released on 16 May 2007).
IDE driver packages for legacy VIA chipsets:
- VIA Miniport driver (also known as the VIA IDE Bus Master Driver)
At the current time, the VIA Hyperion Pro driver contains the VIA PATA/SATA IDE driver Package and the V-RAID driver. The next version of the VIA Hyperion Pro driver will include the VIA IDE Falcon Storage driver and the V-RAID driver.
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