Why do SATA drives still have cable select?

[RegEdit]

Why do SATA drives still have cable select? I'm guessing that they allow you to use an IDE to SATA adapter to connect the drive to an older motherboard that still runs IDE drives?

And if you add a jumper to that cable select when using the drive strictly as a SATA drive does it have any effect?

[Ccomp5950]

One pair of pins is used for limiting to 1.5gb/s transmissions with a dip switch style selector.

The other pair are used for a serial connection to directly communicate with the firmware of the device.

[RegEdit]

Originally Posted by Ccomp5950

One pair of pins is used for limiting to 1.5gb/s transmissions with a dip switch style selector.

The other pair are used for a serial connection to directly communicate with the firmware of the device.

So that's not even an IDE cable select location for jumpers (to the right)?

[14049752]

Originally Posted by RegEdit

So that's not even an IDE cable select location for jumpers (to the right)?

No, it's not cable select.

I'm guessing that they allow you to use an IDE to SATA adapter to connect the drive to an older motherboard that still runs IDE drives?

The jumpers for that would be on the adapter, if necessary