CES 2003: expect 1.8" iVDR Serial ATA drives
It has been 10 months since iVDR consortium was created but if you do not remember what it is, don’t blame yourself, as it has only made a single announcement since the moment of creation. Let me remind you what it is about: in March 2002 eight Japanese companies, including Sanyo Electric, Canon, Fujitsu, Hitachi Manufacturing, Phoenix Technologies, Pioneer, Sharp and Victor Company of Japan (along with FCI and Mitsumi as the "associate members") announced iVDR (Information Versatile Disk for Removable usage) format. Currently the consortium includes 28 companies, including Maxtor and Seagate).
iVDR standard designed for 2.5" HDDs can be used with PCs and other electronic devices. Specifications define the connector, unified interface, file system, etc. According to provisional data, the capacity of iVDR drives will initially make at least 40Gb to be increased to 200-400Gb within 2-3 years (the document even defines terabyte capacities).
The dimensions of iVDR drives are 130x80x12.7 mm. According to the specification, iVDR disks will feature 5-pin connectors with at least 10,000 connect/disconnect cycles. Electrical specifications, instruction sets, etc. meet the ATA standard (ATA Standard + AV Expansion + Secure Expansion), nominal shock resistance is 900G.
iVDR drives will feature their own File system for iVDR. The next stage of development was the transition to 1.8" drives.
So, after keeping silence for 10 months iVDR standard is expected to remind of itself at CES 2003, to take place on January 9-12 in Las Vegas. We should see two 2.5" and one 1.8" iVDR drives. According to the consortium representatives, 1.8" devices using up to 80-mm discs, are designed as an exchangeable storage for audio players and navigation systems. 2.5" drives using up to 130-mm discs are meant for consumer electronics and PC storage. By the way, there will be 1.8" => 2.5" form-factor adapter released as well.
More numbers: 2.5" iVDR discs, to be shown at CES, feature capacities up to 80Gb (to be doubled in 2003). The retail price of the first iVDR-enabled devices will range from $166 to $249, discs themselves will cost <$90. The only problem the consortium hasn´t solved yet is the content security. Supposedly, the final specification will be adopted by March 2003.
Source: Tecchannel.de
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