LBA
Logical Block Addressing (LBA) is a method used to address sectors on a storage device, such as a hard drive or solid-state drive. It assigns a unique numerical address to each sector, allowing the operating system to locate and access specific data. LBA addresses are typically used in conjunction with the ATA (Advanced Technology Attachment) or SCSI (Small Computer System Interface) protocols for communicating with storage devices. This addressing scheme is used to overcome the limitation of CHS (Cylinder-Head-Sector) addressing, which is limited to addressing a maximum of 1024 cylinders, 256 heads and 63 sectors.
LBA addressing allows for larger storage capacities by addressing each sector with a unique number, regardless of its physical location on the storage device. This eliminates the need for the operating system to keep track of the physical location of each sector and simplifies the process of accessing data. Each 512-byte sector is assigned a unique LBA, from zero (0) to the number required based on the size of the disk The host requests a specific block of data using the assigned LBA. When the host requests to write data, an LBA address is returned at the end of the write telling the host where the data is located. This becomes important in the transition to 4K sectors, since there are eight different possibilities for where the host LBA starts.
Summary
In summary, Logical Block Addressing is a addressing scheme used to locate and access specific data on storage devices, which simplifies the process of accessing data and allows for larger storage capacities.