Kevin O'Connor has posted comments on this change. ( https://review.coreboot.org/19690 )
Change subject: src/southbridge/i82801gx: Include a default SeaBIOS config file ......................................................................
Patch Set 1:
The ICH changes the device ID depending on the AHCI vs. IDE setting.
If this device supports AHCI, then I'd recommend AHCI mode be used exclusively.
For the mentioned IDs, we can be sure that it's an SATA port on the ICH (if combined mode is off). Though I have no idea how to detect if it's a PATA drive attached to an SATA port (if that is what you mean by SATA bridge).
It is.
Also I'm wondering how that'd work if the con- troller is in AHCI mode.
See SeaBIOS commit 3f478b9f. As I understand it, the problem with ATA is that negotiating the DMA mode is controller specific, while it's a standard on AHCI. However, it's been a long time since I've looked at this.