Tom Miller wrote in a message to Mike Bilow:
 > Running two IDE drives, each on their own IDE channel, is not likely 
 > to be any slower than running a single IDE drive.  However, all of 
 > the usual disadvantages of IDE with regard to CPU loading and 
 > overall speed will still apply.  With each IDE drive on its own 
 > channel, there will be a significant speed penalty relative to 
 > running two SCSI drives, even if they are on the same SCSI bus.
 TM> How do you manage to get ide drives onto different DMA
 TM> channels?  I can imagine running a primary and a secondary
 TM> IDE controller might do it... but on the same host card?
You are right that each IDE channel is assigned a unique DMA channel.  Each 
IDE channel is, in fact, effectively a separate controller with its own port 
address, IRQ, and DMA channel.  If your IDE controller is PCI, this will all 
be handled automatically.
 
-- Mike
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