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Storage Solutions:

Storage Solutions can include any medium suitable for short term & long term usage from Flash / Magnetic to Optical for Digital Data Archiving & Access. We typically advocate Desktop Hard Drive Storage to feature EIDE - ATA / ATAPI Hard Drives over SCSI. We have high hopes for Serial ATA to perform according to Spec - Time will tell!

We advocate 7 Hard Drive attributes to consider for Desktop ATA Storage Solutions:

1. Interface: Parallel ATA or SCSI. The IDE (Integrated Drive Electronics) interface is officially known as the ATA (AT Attachment) specification. We advocate ATA for the money on Desktop Configurations. SCSI HD's will tend to be faster & cost more. SCSI is moving to Serial Attached SCSI for corporate server solutions. Our Standards Organizations & Trade Associations page has more info worth reviewing regarding ATA & SCSI Trades Organizations. Serial ATA options.
2. Capacity: 60 GB - Minimum.
3. Transfer Rate: ATA/100 (WDC) or ATA/133 (Maxtor). Next generation Serial ATA is coming! Each Transfer Rate specification is Burst Mode. Sustained throughput is more important than burst mode, especially when streaming multiple digital audio & video tracks.
4. Platter Speed: 7200 RPM vs. 5400 RPM. Faster is better! SCSI HD's are currently achieving 15,000 RPM's.
5. Access Time: 8.4 ms (milliseconds) - Disk access time is an average of time between initiating a request and obtaining the first data character. Disk access time includes command processing, seek time and latency. Fast hard disks have access times of 9 milliseconds (ms) or less. This is a common speed measurement. Hard Drive performance is influenced by channel speed (transfer rate), interleaving and caching.
6. Cache: 2 MB Cache is typical. Some HD's such as WDC and now Maxtor have special 8 MB Cache buffers. We expect to see even larger HD Cache in the near future - 2003.
7. Brand: Maxtor (Quantum) or WDC.
   

Note: OK, cutting to the chase: HD Performance Specs - Compare Mathematical Specifications on any given HD to find out which one will yield better performance. Access Time equals Seek Time plus Rotational Latency. HD ATA Specs (Burst Mode) vs Actual Throughput are NOT the same!

Since Maxtor introduced ATA/133, their HD's purchased today will be ATA/133 with 2 MB Cache buffers and 7200 RPM. Maxtor has now followed WDC with 8 MB Cache Buffers. Special WDC HD's will be ATA/100 with 8 MB Cache, 7200 RPM. These WDC capacities range from 80, 100 and 120 GB. WDC has announced 200 GB HD's due in July or August 2002. Expect to see half a Terabyte (500 GB) HD's in later half of 2003. And still we wait for Serial ATA! GB (12/19/2002).

ATA Developments:

1. Hard Drive Host Protected Area (HPA) by George Walker & Joe Whinery.
2. SerialATA:
3. RomtecUSA.com: Multi-Drive ATA HD Selector
4. tecChannel VIA Insides Wenchi Chen speaks up (April 12, 2002).
5. tecChannel Review Ultra-ATA-133 (January 29, 2002).
6. Maxtor Technologies Overview (10/1/2002).
   1. Maxtor Big Drive Technology (Updated 10/1/2002).
   2. Maxtor - Technology, Fast Drives Overview (July 2001).
   3. Maxtor - Product Support, Product Archive - Development of the Ultra ATA-100 Interface White Paper Gone! (November 6, 2000)
7. ATA / ATAPI & Serial ATA Technology Map  (June 2000).

Desktop Storage News:

1. www.extremetech.com - Maxtor Prepares To Leap Storage Hurdle: 'By 2005, MMC believes, the industry will have switched over to a new storage technique called "perpendicular recording", maintaining the steady increases in storage capacity the hard drive industry has come to expect.' (10/15/2003).
2. www.EETAsia.com - Hard disk market returns to revenue growth in '03: "New technologies like the Serial ATA interface are taking off slowly, according to the market watcher. The report said even though mainstream chipsets support SATA, only 10 percent of all drives shipped in 2003 will use the new interface. That's because PC makers don't see significant performance benefits for SATA and are still equipping systems with the cheaper drives using the Parallel ATA interface. SATA will replace the majority of Parallel ATA drives by 2005, the report said."
3. SATA: www.wwpi.com - WestWorld Productions -- CTN: Are You Ready for MAID Technology? (Massive Arrays of Inactive Disks) Storage (7/9/2003).
   1. www.asaca.com
   2. www.storagetek.com
4. Next-gen SCSI prototype shown CNET News.com: Serial Attached SCSI on the Server & Serial ATA on the Desktop (6/21/2003).
5. ww.eweek.com - Serial SCSI Hard Drives on Distant Horizon: "SCSI hardware with serial interfaces will be much easier to configure than current SCSI connections and will have easier-to-handle cabling, vendors promise" (3/29/2003).
6. storage.ziffdavis.com - Storage: Getting the Jumper on Hard Drives - What's a Jumper or two among friends! Cable Select has proven to be the current solution with ATA HD's over Master & Slave as we've accepted in the past (3/16/2003).
7. www.datastorageuniversity.com - DSU: Become a Data Storage Architect! (1/25/2003)
8. WestWorld Productions -- CTN: IBM Improves "Pixie Dust" (12/4/2002).
9. ExtremeTech.com:  Mega-Hard Drive Shoot-Out (12/4/2002).
10. Rolltronics Applications Nanoscale Molecular Memory: 5 TB! (12/4/2002)
11. ExtremeTech.com:  IBM Introduces Vibration-Damping Hard Drive - "IBM will only sell the hard drives if a planned merger of its disk-drive operations fails to go through with Hitachi... Otherwise... the drives [will be] sold from the merged company" (7/9/2002).
12. DataPlay - What's Playing On DataPlay: Heard Of it Yet?
    • DataPlay, Inc. - Universal Recording Media - News: One Universal Format For All Things Digital (12/18/2002).
13. Hitachi to IBM $2 billion does the deal - Tech News - CNET.com (6/5/2002).
14. WestWorld Productions -- CTN: Gartner Report Confirms Leader in Disk Storage Vendor Market Share Growth - IBM on top yet out of HD business, interesting? (6/4/2002)
    1. IBM Storage hardware, software, solutions and services
    2. iBoot - Remote Boot over iSCSI Homepage
15. Big Blue's iBoot kicks disk off the PC (5/31/2002).
16. zdnet.com:  News IBM Give hard drives the boot - iBoot Technology (5/30/2002).
17. CiscoWorldMagazine.com:  Storage Performance Council Launches First Industry-Standard Network Storage Benchmark (5/21/2002).
18. StorageReview.com (5/20/2002).
19. ExtremeTech.com:  Build Your Own SAN (5/16/2002).
20. WestWorld Productions -- CTN: Maxtor QuickView Hard Drives Featured In Intel Media Center Reference Design (5/7/2002).
21. ExtremeTech.com:  IBM Exits Hard Drive Business to Hitachi for iBoot Technology (4/18/2002).
22. What's Using Your Hard Drive: DiskAction - For Win9x (9/05/2001).
23. Dan Kegel's Fast Hard Drives Page (03/09/2001).
24. EE Times - Seagate spins 15,000-rpm disk drive (03/09/2001).

Desktop Storage Technologies:

1. ExtremeTech.com - The Future of Notebook Computing: The next Big Thing... OLED Displays, Organic Storage (IBM's Millipede) & Fuel Cells (2/18/2003).
2. Storage Technologies: Ever wonder why IBM moved out of the Hard Drive business? Maybe they didn't?  Heard of IBM's new atomic force microscope (AFM)-based data storage concept called Millipede which is a nanomechanical storage device? IBM Research Resources News IBM's 'Millipede' Project Demonstrates Trillion-Bit Data Storage Density - Store the equivalent of 25 DVDs on a surface the size of a postage stamp (12/19/2002).
3. Optical: DVD
4. Beyond DVD holographic storage - Tech Trends - CNET.com (6-14-02).
5. almaden.ibm.com:  Holographic Data Storage
6. InPhase Technologies what is holographic storage
7. Terastor: Near Field Recording - Increases Data Storage By Ten-Fold
8. Seagate Technology News Release Quinta Corporation Demonstrates Revolutionary Optically Assisted Winchester Technology Designed to Push Back the Superparamagnetic Effect (11-16-1998).

Choice Storage Solutions:

1. ATA/ATAPI Interface Specs: Current Mass Storage Device Interface
2. CD-ROM Testing Applications
3. Personal Storage Solutions - Memory Cards, Drives & Readers, etc.
4. Pocket Drive Portable Storage Devices
5. SCSI -
6. Serial ATA: High Speed Serialized AT Attachment