Introduction

No processors this time!

There was other exciting news happening at Intel Developer Forum besides processors. The sheer number of press releases from last week on the Intel Press website proves this statement perfectly. Everything from alliances with new companies to the development of new initiatives designed to make the PC easier to use was discussed.

In our second report from IDF, I'll discuss the technologies that caught my attention as well as update a few stories that have been developing over the last few months.

Serial ATA

Chances are, if you're reading this article you've owned at least one computer with an ATA hard drive. With newer, faster, versions doing a fairly good job keeping up with SCSI performance, ATA offers a pretty compelling solution. After all, why pay the required premium for a SCSI hard drive and controller just to load applications a few seconds faster?

Last year alone over 126 million ATA hard drives were shipped by hard drive manufacturers, this number is expected to increase to over 216 million units in only 3 years.

We mentioned the main reason ATA is so attractive: cost. ATA hard drives - whether they're based on two-year old technology or the latest 7200RPM, 2MB buffer ATA-66 drive - are considerably cheaper than their SCSI rivals.

And when was the last time you saw a motherboard ship without an IDE connector? Anyway you look at it ATA has been a universal success.

The downsides to Parallel ATA

The ATA interface does have its negatives though. For starters, ATA requires large, bulky cables that restrict airflow inside system cases. (Which is why we have hardcore cooling studs like Kyle Bennett over at HardOCP)

With the lack of fresh, cool air flowing freely throughout the case, system components get that much hotter. With increased temperature, the reliability of components within the system could possibly degrade over time.

During the Serial ATA presentation Intel even went so far as to state that the ribbon connector header itself was "not conductive to assembly and is failure prone."

Another negative with the ATA interface is the amount of voltage it draws. ATA (we'll refer to it as Parallel ATA from now on) requires a 5V transceiver.

With the desire to drive power requirements in system components down (with one exception being video cards) ATA begins to look like a power hog. Keep in mind the strict power demands of notebook components, where long battery life is crucial to a successful product.