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ATA Manager 4.0

Mac OS 9 includes ATA Manager 4.0, which has a modular design similar to that of SCSI Manager 4.3. This modularity provides the flexibility to have multiple ATA controllers working at the same time--for example, those for the Ultra ATA and ATA interfaces. ATA Manager 4.0 supports both controllers together by including ATA Interface Modules (AIMs) for both.

With this new modular design, the ATA Manager and the ATA Interface Modules (AIMs) divide the responsibilities. The ATA Manager is responsible for

• registering ATA plug-ins

• routing each request to the appropriate plug-in

• calling completion routines for asynchronous calls

ATA Interface Modules are responsible for

• handling each request

• error handling

• returning errors