Advanced Format Technology

Until late 2009, HDDs were interfaced via a 512-byte physical sector size. This will soon not always be the case due to an industry direction specifying a method where the physical sector size may be greater than 512 bytes (but still in multiples of 512 bytes). This means that a physical sector will no longer have a one-to-one relationship with an LBA address. For compatibility reasons, it is believed that the traditional 512-byte sector should continue to be exposed to the host. As long as file systems are properly aligned, no performance impact can be seen. If a file system is misaligned, a noticeable impact in performance can be observed. Significant progress in this migration can be made by adding awareness to partitioning utilities to properly align the file systems for the best performance.

IDEMA's Advanced Format technology initiative seeks to help industry partners, independent software vendors, and the entire IT/CE infrastructure prepare for this technology transition. Please visit our "Documents" area for background information and, if you are interested, apply for an Advanced Format Developer Kit. Thanks for your interest in the Advanced Format technology!