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 in accordance with the SATA format with the host. The serial interface during the transmission of primitives in a pass-through phase, 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.