CE-ATA: Tiny Hard-Disk Standard

April 28, 2005
Today's compact hard drives have custom interfaces. Integrated drive electronics (IDE) and other such interfaces simply have too many pins to be practical. As for serial ATA, it's too new and a bit costly in terms of power and hardware. The up-a

Today's compact hard drives have custom interfaces. Integrated drive electronics (IDE) and other such interfaces simply have too many pins to be practical. As for serial ATA, it's too new and a bit costly in terms of power and hardware.

The up-and-coming alternative, CE-ATA, is under development by companies from the CE-ATA Work Group. These companies include Intel, Hitachi Global Storage Technologies, Marvell Semiconductor Inc., Seagate Technology, and Toshiba America Information Systems, as well as the MultiMedia Card Association (MMCA).

CE-ATA uses the same electrical interface as the MultiMedia Card (MMC), with modifications to handle a functional subset of the Advanced Technology Attachment (ATA) command set. This permits existing microprocessors with MMC interfaces to readily handle CE-ATA devices, though they will require a new CE-ATA device driver. In the future, microprocessors may have two MMC interfaces, with each supporting only one device.

The CE-ATA 1.0 specification will be finalized soon. Initial products are likely to arrive in 2005.

Sponsored Recommendations

Highly Integrated 20A Digital Power Module for High Current Applications

March 20, 2024
Renesas latest power module delivers the highest efficiency (up to 94% peak) and fast time-to-market solution in an extremely small footprint. The RRM12120 is ideal for space...

Empowering Innovation: Your Power Partner for Tomorrow's Challenges

March 20, 2024
Discover how innovation, quality, and reliability are embedded into every aspect of Renesas' power products.

Article: Meeting the challenges of power conversion in e-bikes

March 18, 2024
Managing electrical noise in a compact and lightweight vehicle is a perpetual obstacle

Power modules provide high-efficiency conversion between 400V and 800V systems for electric vehicles

March 18, 2024
Porsche, Hyundai and GMC all are converting 400 – 800V today in very different ways. Learn more about how power modules stack up to these discrete designs.

Comments

To join the conversation, and become an exclusive member of Electronic Design, create an account today!