In spite of its backing by the likes of Seagate Technology Inc, Sun Microsystems Inc and Compaq Computer Corp, storage company Quantum Computer Corp doesn’t see Fibre Channel making big inroads into products until after the year 2000 and therefore has continued to work on new storage interfaces to enhance existing offerings. As it promised last year (CI No 3,176), its Ultra2 SCSI LVD Low Voltage Differential is now available in its enterprise level Atlas III range, and in its Viking II range for high performance workstations and personal servers. Phil Worsdale, a senior field applications engineer for the company, says LVD is a really good technology for SCSI, with a good transmission theory behind it. Previously, the interface using traditional High Voltage Differential had been somewhat cobbled together over time, whereas LVD is a totally architected engineering design which rejects ground noise and enables more accurate transmission. The Ultra2 SCSI LVD interface is aimed at workstations, and high-end multi-user systems. At the lower end, most personal computers still use the ATA/IDE interface. Quantum’s current offering is the ATA/33, but the company has announced the Ultra ATA/66 disk drive interface, which will be supported by Intel Corp in future chipsets. ATA/66 doubles the bandwidth of ATA/33, and Quantum has also developed a new cable, which, it says, will increase the robustness of the interface to the hard drive. International Data Corp statistics seem to back up Quantum’s view that Fibre Channel will not be significant until after 2000, and the research company believes ultra ATA/66 is the most sensible option until 1394 becomes a viable interface. Quantum insists it is backing Fibre Channel, and working on it, but it believes it will be two or three years before it seriously takes off. Products with the new ATA/66 interface should be out by the end of the year.
