Disk controller

Encyclopedia : D : DI : DIS : Disk controller

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The disk controller (or "hard disk controller") is the circuit which allows the CPU to communicate with a hard disk, floppy disk or other kind of disk drive.

The most common disk controllers in use are Serial ATA, IDE, and SCSI controllers. Most home personal computers use IDE controllers. High end PCs, workstations and network file servers mostly have SCSI adapters.

The correct term for the component that allows a computer to talk to a SCSI bus is host adapter or host bus adapter. The component that allows a disk to talk to a SCSI bus is called a controller. Disks called "SCSI disks" have built-in SCSI controllers. In the past, before most SCSI controller functionality was implemented in a single chip, separate SCSI controllers interfaced disks to the SCSI bus. There are other ways of partitioning the functionality that can make applying this terminology difficult or inappropriate.

In the IDE standards, the terminology is like that of SCSI.

 

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