THRASHER2
08-15-2007, 03:23 AM
Seagate Hastening the End of the IDE Era?
http://computershopper.com/shoptalk/Seagate0726.jpg
Ars Technica is reporting (http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070725-seagate-plans-to-stop-manufacturing-ide-drives-by-the-end-of-2007.html) that storage magnate Seagate (http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/) is planning to stop manufacturing IDE hard drives by the end of 2007, and will focus production solely on SATA products from then on out.
In a way, this isn't that surprising—SATA (short for serial ATA drives) offer greater speed and efficiency than older IDE (or PATA, parallel ATA) interfaces, as well as features like hot-swapping and native command queuing. Plus (of special interest to computer builders), its use of fewer signal lines means that SATA cables can be thinner and considerably less intrusive, requiring less space inside the case, and thus offering a reduced impediment to airflow for cooling purposes.
Not that you're likely to witness the complete disappearance of IDE jacks on motherboards any time soon. Though a January report from iTnews (http://www.itnews.com.au/News/44879,booming-sata-market-looks-to-overtake-storage-arena.aspx) states that a full two-thirds of hard drives sold last year used SATA, there are still thousands upon thousands of hard drives out there with IDE interfaces, and they're still readily available for purchase. But even if IDE's around for a while yet, expect its waning popularity to decrease even more quickly now. After all, if Seagate is going this route now, can other major manufacturers like Western Digital and Maxtors be far behind?
http://computershopper.com/shoptalk/Seagate0726.jpg
Ars Technica is reporting (http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070725-seagate-plans-to-stop-manufacturing-ide-drives-by-the-end-of-2007.html) that storage magnate Seagate (http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/) is planning to stop manufacturing IDE hard drives by the end of 2007, and will focus production solely on SATA products from then on out.
In a way, this isn't that surprising—SATA (short for serial ATA drives) offer greater speed and efficiency than older IDE (or PATA, parallel ATA) interfaces, as well as features like hot-swapping and native command queuing. Plus (of special interest to computer builders), its use of fewer signal lines means that SATA cables can be thinner and considerably less intrusive, requiring less space inside the case, and thus offering a reduced impediment to airflow for cooling purposes.
Not that you're likely to witness the complete disappearance of IDE jacks on motherboards any time soon. Though a January report from iTnews (http://www.itnews.com.au/News/44879,booming-sata-market-looks-to-overtake-storage-arena.aspx) states that a full two-thirds of hard drives sold last year used SATA, there are still thousands upon thousands of hard drives out there with IDE interfaces, and they're still readily available for purchase. But even if IDE's around for a while yet, expect its waning popularity to decrease even more quickly now. After all, if Seagate is going this route now, can other major manufacturers like Western Digital and Maxtors be far behind?