A device communicatively coupled to a host in a Serial Advanced Technology
Attachment (SATA) format. The device includes a processor to control
operations in the device and a serial interface to control serial
communication with the host in accordance with the SATA format. The
serial interface, after the transmission of a continued primitive,
inserts pass-through information to the host within or outside of a frame
information structure (FIS). If the host is not pass-through enabled, the
host ignores the pass-through information. However, if the host is
pass-through enabled, the host recognizes the pass-through information.