Editing SATA (section)

=== Advanced Host Controller Interface ===
[[Advanced Host Controller Interface]] (AHCI) is an open host controller interface published and used by [[Intel]], which has become a [[de facto]] standard. It allows the use of advanced features of SATA such as [[hotplug]] and [[native command queuing]] (NCQ). If AHCI is not enabled by the motherboard and chipset, SATA controllers typically operate in "IDE{{Efn|Integrated Drive Electronics}} emulation" mode, which does not allow access to device features not supported by the ATA (also called IDE) standard.

Windows device drivers that are labeled as SATA are often running in IDE emulation mode unless they explicitly state that they are AHCI mode, in [[RAID]] mode, or a mode provided by a proprietary driver and command set that allowed access to SATA's advanced features before AHCI became popular. Modern versions of [[Microsoft Windows]], [[macOS|Mac OS X]], [[FreeBSD]], [[Linux kernel|Linux]] with version 2.6.19 onward,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://linux-ata.org/driver-status.html#ahci|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070312010549/http://linux-ata.org/driver-status.html#ahci|archive-date=2007-03-12 |title=Serial ATA (SATA) Linux hardware/driver status report |website=linux-ata.org |access-date=2010-01-26}}</ref> as well as [[Solaris (operating system)|Solaris]] and [[OpenSolaris]], include support for AHCI, but earlier operating systems such as [[Windows XP]] do not. Even in those instances, a proprietary driver may have been created for a specific chipset, such as Intel's.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.intel.com/support/chipsets/imst/sb/cs-020825.htm|title=Intel® Matrix Storage Technology - Unattended Installation Instructions Under Windows* XP|date=2 March 2007|publisher=[[Intel]]|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070302101422/http://www.intel.com/support/chipsets/imst/sb/cs-020825.htm|archive-date=2 March 2007}}</ref>