Consumer Electronics ATA 1.0 Specification Completed

A final CE-ATA 1.0 specification paving the way for the expanded use of mini disk drives in handheld electronics. The CE-ATA specification defines a disk drive interface tailored to the needs of the handheld and CE market segments. The new CE-ATA interface standard for small form factor disk drives addresses requirements inherent to such small devices, including low pin count, low voltage, power efficiency, cost effectiveness and integration efficiency.


At this week's Intel's Developer's Forum in San Francisco, Intel and partners showed a prototype Intel handheld media player running video off a CE-ATA prototype disk drive supplied by Marvell. The CE-ATA prototype drive is an off-the-shelf 1.8-inch hard drive re-fitted with Marvell's small-form-factor chipset and firmware, featuring the 88i6310 SOC, as well as Marvell's stacked flash, motor controller, switching regulator and preamplifier.


"In a word, remarkable. Delivery of the CE-ATA protocol specification is even ahead of the aggressive schedule committed to when we launched the initiative at IDF Fall 2004," said Knut Grimsrud, chairman of the CE-ATA working group and Intel Corporation senior principal engineer. "CE-ATA development is at a feverish pace. The first end products supporting the new technology could be availablehttp://www.intel.com