SERIAL ATA
For the past 15 years, the Parallel Advanced Technology Attachment (ATA) interface has been the standard way of connecting Enhanced Integrated Drive Electronics (EIDE) hard drives, CD-ROM drives and burners, DVD-ROM drives and burners, tape drives, and other devices that mount inside your computer for many years. Parallel ATA connections use wide ribbon cables and long connectors with many pins. Now a new, improved standard called the Serial ATA interface is beginning to make inroads into the marketplace.

Advantages

• The Serial ATA uses slender cables that let air circulate within a computer case, so cooling is better.
• Serial ATA cables can be longer, so there won’t be a problem using one of the larger computer cases favored by gamers and for servers. Maximum cable length can be up to 1 meter, which is long enough to permit external connections. But I expect USB 2.0 and FireWire will remain the standards for external connections.
• Each drive has its own cable—no more sharing.
• While it is nominally faster (speeds up to 1.5 GB per second), in practice, current Parallel ATA connections don’t pose any significant slow-down to today’s 7200-RPM drives.
• Serial ATA connections require only 500 mV signals, as opposed to Parallel ATA’s 5 volts. That will make it easier to handle on newer motherboards and with new, smaller chip sets.
• EIDE drives will no longer have master and slave jumper settings. All connections are masters.
• Plugs and connectors for Serial ATA will be smaller. Connectors will only fit one way, so you can’t plug them in backwards.
• Adapters will be available to let Serial ATA controllers work with older Parallel ATA drives.
• Hot pluggable. You can attach and remove the connection to a hard drive without shutting down your computer first. I wouldn’t recommend doing that, but with Serial ATA, it’s possible.
• Serial ATA hardware is compatible with all operating systems.

Serial ATA Hard Drives
Now that Serial ATA controllers are easily available, Serial ATA hard drives are starting to appear in the marketplace. One such drive is Western Digital’s WD Raptor drive. The Raptor rotates at 10,000 RPM, a new and higher speed rating for an EIDE drive. It boasts a 5.2 millisecond seek time, the average time it needs to find something anywhere on the drive. The first version of the drive is fairly small by today’s standards: 36.7 GB. The list price is $200.

Other companies have introduced Serial ATA drives that run at the conventional 7,200 RPM speed, but have much larger capacities. Seagate offers several Serial ATA Barracuda drives in sizes up to 120 MB, which sells for $180. Maxtor’s DiamondMax Plus 9 series of drives are available in either Parallel ATA or Serial ATA in sizes up to 200 GB. Their MaXLine Plus II drive is 250 GB.

INTERESTING HARDWARE

Dell OptiPlex SX260
Dave Sorgen called my attention to this month’s entry, the Dell OptiPlex SX260. This computer is interesting not because it’s big and powerful, but because it’s small and (maybe) powerful. The SX260 is smaller than a 15-inch LCD monitor, yet it comes with processors up to 3.06 GHZ Pentium 4s, and with up to 2 GB of RAM. Although it only comes with one externally accessible storage device (a CD burner or a DVD burner), six USB 2.0 ports provide high-speed expandability. A Gigabit network connection provides for very high-speed networking. The 150- watt power supply comes in an external box, like a super wall-wart. So what’s the catch? At least two: one is the fact that to maintain the small size (9.7 inches high), a notebook computer hard drive is used. It runs at 5,400 RPM, a lot slower than the 7,200 RPM desktop drive. Another limitation is the video controller, which is integrated into the motherboard and shares system memory—read slow. But if your primary computer use is doing office productivity programs and surfing the net, you don’t need super-powered graphics.

The big advantage is that the SX260 gives you back your desktop. It could make a great computer for the average office, and for many homes. Prices start at $500, but go way up.

Dell Dimension XPS
While the SX260 represents a high-value, conservative approach to computing, the XPS is designed to appeal to gamers. Thus it focuses on performance, offering almost every performance option I can think of, including 2 Aerial ATA ports on the motherboard. The only processor option is Intel’s fastest: a 3.06 GHz Pentium 4. A massive 460-watt power supply provides enough juice for any imaginable accessory.

If that’s not enough, you get a pretty case, with silver trim on the front of the case. That’s pretty tame compared to Alienware’s newest offerings, but for Dell, it’s radical. Prices start at $2,000.