Recently we
have been given the opportunity to take a look at one of the first S-ATA drives that is under
development. The drive we received was a test model and will probably never ever
reach the market. It was still intresting to see this new development and we
took the opportunity to make some early tests. From our tests it seems
that current available S-ATA controllers are not yet ready to be
used with optical storage drives and we expect that this will improve when
more S-ATA chipsets will be released.
S-ATA will be the follow up of the current ATAPI/IDE drives that have
dominated the hard disk and optical storage market for years. The technology
brings easier to attach and smaller cables, no more master/slave
settings, theoretically more speed and hot swappability, meaning you can
replace the drive will the computer is on.
The coming time we will probably see more releases
of S-ATA drives but expectations are that large OEM orders from the likes of
Dell and HP will speed up the process of the development in the end of 2004.
Market expectations are that the entire market will be S-ATA in 2007, according
to our sources. Check out our first look here.
Source: Club CD Freaks
