A number of semiconductor companies have come together to define the standard interface for storage in wireless handhelds and other portable devices. The companies hope this will make handhelds like cell phones and personal digital assistants more efficient storage devices.
The companies include Intel Corp., Hitachi Global Storage Technologies, Marvell Semiconductor Inc., Seagate Technology and Toshiba America Information Systems.
The interface, known as CE-ATA, will focus on small form factor disk drives for low pin count, low voltage, power efficiency, cost effectiveness and integration efficiency.
“No disk drive interface exists today that is tailored to the needs of the handheld and CE market segments, so disk drives have to make do with other interface alternatives that are complex and cumbersome.” remarked Knut Grimsrud, Intel’s CE-ATA initiative senior principal engineer. “With the explosive growth of portable consumer devices, the CE-ATA initiative attends to a tremendous need .”
