Intel And Vista are Expected To Speed Up Adoption Of SATA

Intel's P965 chipset and Microsoft's Vista operating system are expected to speed up adoption of SATA (serial advanced technology attachment) and displace ATAPI (ATA packet interface) as the mainstream interface standard for optical drives in the second half of 2007, according to optical disc drive (ODD) manufacturers in Taiwan.

Following LG, Plextor, Sony and Taiwan-based Asustek, Pioneer and Panasonic as well as Taiwan-based Lite-On IT will soon offer DVD-ROM drives or DVD burners equipped with SATA interfaces, the sources indicated.

Because retail prices of SATA DVD drives or burners are 20-30% higher than those for ATAPI models with the same functions, many OEM/ODM clients have not adopted SATA for the time being, the sources noted. ATAPI is expected to remain as the mainstream standard in the first half of 2007, but Intel's P965 chipset and Vista are expected to increase the proportion of DVD drives using SATA, the sources pointed out.

While ATAPI has a transfer speed of 100MB/s, SATA 1.0 can transfer data at 150MB/s, the sources indicated.
[Source]