Link: http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post...d-of-2007.html

The other HDD and ODD manufacturers should have already done the same thing.

Guess i need to look out for a couple PATA HDD's for my Notebook before they get high priced or extinct.

Why? There are still systems out there that can only use PATA drives, e.g. my two year old notebook.

If all the manufacturers had moved on the SATA harddrives, I wouldn't have been able to replace my notebook harddrive unless some old stock were available.

There are good reasons for continuing to manufacture hardware compatible with slightly older systems, at least for some time after the technology has been outdated.

It's up to each manufacturer to decide for how long they want to continue making such hardware, and Seagate has apparently decided that now is the time.

I have five notebooks that only accept PATA HDD's and PATA ODD's. Most of them have IEEE 1394a and USB 1.1 so even USB 2.0 external cases can't help much. Most of my desktop motherboards have only PATA as well. I have more than 50 such motherboards yet.

However, it's just been too long chipset and motherboard manufacturers and drive manufacturers have blamed each other. Intel has often been the lonely leader. Samsung was among the most conservative HDD manfuacturers to adopt SATA. Most ODD manufacturers yet concentrate on PATA drives and the largest ODD manufacturer, LG, still have only very few SATA ODD models. Their reason has nearly always has been that Intel still support PATA.

I don't want to spend any more money on DDR I modules and PATA drives. Maybe you don't feel like I do because it's very easy and relatively cheap for me to buy used PATA HDD's and I have more than enough PATA DVD writers to fulfill my personal needs.

Anyway, it seems clear now PATA market'll become niche by early 2008.

One thing I think that has been missed in conversations over this announcement is this:

These days, 95% of the bulk of the drive is exactly the same for the SATA and PATA versions of the same drive: metal casing, motors, platters, heads, plastics, arms/actuators, etc. The only physical difference is the on-disk controller board, that flat piece that screws onto the bottom and provides the PATA or SATA connectors. The drives are interface agnostic until that is screwed onto it and the firmware is written to the private portion of the platters.

It would be nice if they had generalized it further and split the controller in two: the inner half being the physical/electrical/magnetic drive controller with the outer half being the logical controller (physical interface and command center). That way, one could actually purchase bi-interface drives with the ability to swap PATA to SATA by sliding a card on and off the back of the drive. Since PATA doesn't have a strict physical positioning standard for the ports while SATA does, they'd have to ensure to conform to that that after inserting the SATA daughter board , of course.

That would add cost, of course, but it would make things easier when dealing with a heterogeneous interface environment.

-brendan

Or they could just bundle a (working) sata to IDE adapter & charge for the minimal difference.

That would be nice Debro but free would be better.

I have temporarily, for a few years I hope, circumvented all of this by keeping my PATA Raid controller cards I have lying around, and by getting a few SATA Raid controller cards. I can put anything into any system. By the time PCI slots disappear, everything needed to do the job will be cheap.

Notebook makers and most others try to make it very difficult and costly for end users to adapt in an environment where there always are multiple standards. What they want is keeping power over consumers, not giving consumers power.