How does ATAPI differ from, and coexist with, ATA(-2)?
For the sake of compatibility with non-ATAPI aware software that might mistake an ATAPI device for a harddrive, the device pretends it isn’t there until it’s waken up by a special sequence of commands. Once activated, it uses a command protocol that radically differs from that used by harddisks. The reason is that the 8-bit Task File used by harddisks is not large enough to support some CD-ROM command structures. Therefore, only a minimum of traditional ATA commands are supported by ATAPI devices. For most of their functions, these devices rely on the ATAPI Transport Protocol using packets of at least 12 bytes sent, as data, through the Data Register. These packet commands have been derived from the SCSI command set; this makes it reasonably easy to rewrite existing SCSI CD-ROM and tape drivers for ATAPI hardware. Beware that non-ATAPI aware ‘intelligent’ controllers, for example caching controllers, will be mightily confused by packet commands. Traditionally, the data register is only
