Ultra ATA picks up PC vendor support

Big-name PC vendors are lining up behind the Quantum/Intel-developed Ultra ATA fast hard disk drive interface. The specification for the proposed standard - also known as Ultra DMA/33 - was submitted to the ATA drive standards organisation on October 23.

Compaq, Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Acer and Digital are all backing Ultra ATA, which doubles burst-mode transfer rates to 33Mb/sec but is backwards compatible with older ATA modes. Backers also say Ultra ATA offers improved data integrity.

Quantum introduced Ultra ATA in its Fireball line of drives released in October and Ultra ATA PCI adapter cards will shortly be available from a range of vendors to upgrade current systems, Quantum said. Intel plans support for Ultra ATA in new chipsets and although Quantum led development, all the other major drive makers have endorsed the interface, making Ultra ATA a virtual certainty to become widely adopted in 1997 PCs.