AT&T Microelectronics has announced a low-power integrated circuit that reads and writes data on hard-disk: it uses 0.9-micron linear-CMOS technology to minimise power consumption, and the company says that the new chip will enable read-channel offerings for for 2.5 and smaller disk drives; AT&T Microelectronics REACH1, or Read Channel 1, is an alternative to BiCMOS or traditional bipolar technology in the read-channel function, and AT&T claims that read-channel devices implemented with the linear-CMOS technology are inherently between 25% and 33% lower in power consumption than those in bipolar or BiCMOS; the device is $18 in quantities of 1,000 and it will be in volume production during June.
