Version 1.1 of the CE-ATA Specification Adopted

CE-ATA, the storage interface optimized for next-generation portable CE and Compute devices, has accomplished noteworthy progress during the past year in terms of market adoption of CE-ATA HDDs and unveils its roadmap for enabling future storage requirements in portable CE and Compute devices.

The most recent development is the commercial traction of version 1.1 compliant CE-ATA HDDs in the portable CE device market. Several market- leading CE manufacturers have launched products based on CE-ATA HDDs within the past several months. These innovative products include Portable Multimedia Players (PMPs) and Pocket-Sized Wireless Storage Platforms, among others, and can be seen in several booths at CES this year.

Additionally, both Toshiba and Samsung, market leaders in HDD technology, have recently announced the production availability of 1.8" CE-ATA HDDs at densities up to 160 Gigabytes, establishing optimal levels of both capacity and power consumption in small form factor HDDs. These new announcements come at the right time; with storage-hungry applications such as mobile video being recognized as the fastest growing media segment, the need for increased storage capacity to meet this need is growing exponentially.

Another significant milestone for CE-ATA at CES is the announcement that version 2.0 of the specification is under development by the CE-ATA Working Group (WG). In response to adopter feedback and the market need for higher capacity and performance at reduced power consumption in the 1.8" form factor, the WG is targeting the following specific improvements to version 1.1 of the CE-ATA specification:

  — Increase in interface speed to greater than 100 MB/s, providing the necessary interface performance for CE-ATA HDDs to broaden the served market from portable CE devices to compute-oriented Ultra Mobile PCs and Mobile Internet Devices.
 
  — Voltage Scaling of the interface I/O to eliminate the requirement to be 3.3V tolerant, enabling reduced power consumption and the use of more advanced process geometries for the semiconductor devices controlling the CE-ATA HDDs.
 
  — Backward compatibility with all software, cables and connectors, allowing the existing ecosystem of version 1.1 compatible
     infrastructure to be used with version 2.0 compatible HDDs.
 
  — A robust negotiation scheme, allowing host systems to negotiate with the version 2.0 capable HDDs for access to new features and technology.
 
  — Further enhancements for power management, enabling more intelligent energy consumption to yield longer battery life for portable CE products and computing equipment adoption version 2.0 products.
 
 
The draft 2.0 specification is on track to be ratified and published in the first half of 2008, as originally committed at the launch of the initiative. The first end products supporting the new technology could be available as early as 2009.
The CE-ATA Promoter Group represents some of the most prominent and capable companies in the disk drive and handheld consumer market segments. The promoter group includes Hitachi Global Storage Technologies, Intel, Marvell Semiconductor, Seagate Technology and Toshiba America Information Systems.
At CES, several companies will be demonstrating end products based on CE-ATA HDDs or products that enable the CE-ATA ecosystem for adopters. These companies, along with their CES location are:
  — Intel
  — QuickLogic
  — Samsung
  — Seagate Technology
  — Toshiba America Information Systems: Central Hall
 
 
 CE-ATA Working Group