[syslinux] Advanced Format Technology

[Gene Cumm]

While researching another issue unrelated to Syslinux, I found some
mildly disturbing news that affects Syslinux.  As HPA stated back on
2009-06-04, hard drive manufacturers are pushing towards a 4096B
(4kiB; 4k) native sector size.  They're calling it "Advanced Format
Technology".  It appears that WD (Western Digital; WDC) is the first
with some products being released back in December and that Seagate
just recently "jumped on the bandwagon".

Seeing as HPA's mention of the 4kiB sector back on 2009-06-04 was the
only mention I've seen and "Advanced Format" can't be seen anywhere in
the list archives, I felt it worthwhile to mention "it's here", at
least to some extent.

In WD's whitepaper (PDF available by selecting language at
http://www.wdc.com/wdproducts/library/?id=216&type=87), it does,
however, talk about performing in-drive emulation from 512B to 4096B
sectors and that they have a utility
(http://www.wdc.com/en/products/advancedformat/) to "realign" for
"performance" (still can't be certain what this really means;
sacrifice 1/64 capacity by packing (63) 512B sectors on (8) 4096B
sectors?).

Has this been discussed at all off-list (ie IRC)?  With the in-drive
emulation, it seems like it either won't affect anything or it won't
affect it for now.

-- 
-Gene

"No one ever says, 'I can't read that ASCII(plain text) e-mail you sent me.'"