SATA could displace ATAPI for DVD-ROM, DVD burners

While ATAPI has been popularly used in optical disc drives (ODDs), SATA (serial ATA) stands a good chance of replacing the former as the mainstream interface standard for DVD-ROM drives and DVD burners in the second half of 2007 due to increasing adoption of the latter by global OEM/ODM clients such as Dell and Hewlett-Packard, according to ODD makers in Taiwan.

Many international OEM/ODM clients have requested for use of SATA in place of ATAPI for new DVD-ROM drive and/or DVD burner models sent for product certification over the past four months, the sources pointed out. As a result, the total shipment volume of SATA DVD-ROM drives and DVD burners is likely to exceed that of ATAPI models in the second half of the year, the sources indicated.

The cost structure and technological requirements for SATA is not significantly higher than those for ATAPI, the sources noted. In addition, recent chipsets from Intel have only offered SATA support requiring motherboard makers to use additional chips to support ATAPI/IDE on their motherboards, the sources explained.

However, the situation may not happen to the DIY (do it yourself) market, the sources indicated. Although Pioneer, Sony, BenQ, LG and Plextor have offered SATA ODDs, retail prices of these products are 20-30% more expensive than comparable models equipped with ATAPI and therefore it is difficult for SATA to displace ATAPI unless new motherboards will not support the latter, the sources said.

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