The IDE Connector Is Not Dead, Yet

In a strange twist of events, apparently old-school hardware geeks aren't the only ones who still have a thing for IDE drives. As much as the industry is trying to wipe them out completely, by limiting the number of IDE channels that are available on the new hype, cool, trendy motherboards, the little buggers still have some kick left in them and are fighting back. The same thing happened with the floppy disk drive, it was the first support type I know of for Windows 3.11 and the likes, but look where it is now; exactly, nowhere in sight.

The IDE connector is still popular; I use it at home for one, and don't plan on changing it anytime soon. Why? Because it does the job it was supposed to, that's why, maybe the optical unit could perform a little faster but when it will break down, I'll buy another one, it's that simple. And there are some that share my view and still believe that a technology cannot be outdated as long as it has been such an important part of the computer industry thus far. Among those open minded people are the ones behind Super Talent technology, they have produced a series of IDE Flash Disk Modules (FDM), basing them on the same NAND technology they are currently using in their majority of products.

The models being offered by Super Talent are available in 40-pin and 44-pin configurations, being compatible with the majority of motherboards existent out there, and are in vertical and horizontal oriented connectors. The capacities for these models range from 1 to 8GB, with an estimated price for the 8GB models to be around $199. Mass production for these products will take place in mid-April.

Joe James, Super Talent Marketing Director said: "Flash disk modules are a natural extension of our SSD product line. Our FDM's are a compact, highly reliable storage medium that is well suited to industrial and embedded applications."