To accommodate increasing user demand for high performance and desktop capacity, Compaq Computer Corp has made available a new 6.4GB Ultra ATA hard drive as an option for its Deskpro models. To date, the biggest ATA hard drive available was only 3.2GB, typically bundled as standard with Compaq’s Deskpro 2000 and Deskpro 4000 systems. But according to Steven Torbe, Compaq’s UK Desktop Product Manager, user demand for bigger, faster disks drives has led the company to boost the capacity, to 6.4GB, and offer the drive as an option as well. The Ultra ATA interface, developed by Intel Corp and Quantum Corp, is the current interface for moving data between the disk drive and system memory. The old technology, called EIDE, only supported a data transfer rate of 16.7MB per second whereas Ultra ATA doubles this rate to 33MB. Torbe said that the hard drive, which is available worldwide immediately, runs at 5200rpm and achieves an average access rate of less than 10ms, allowing users almost instant access to their stored data. It also features Compaq’s SMART self-monitoring technology, which scans all activity and predicts failures before they occur.
