Product category:
Programmable Logic Devices
News Release from: QuickLogic | Subject: Seagate companion device
Edited by the Electronicstalk Editorial
Team on 30 March 2006
Programmable companion aids HDD
interfacing
QuickLogic has partnered with Seagate Technology to deliver an improved mass storage solution for portable embedded systems incorporating Seagate S-Series CompactFlash hard disc drives.
QuickLogic has partnered with Seagate Technology, the world's leading manufacturer of consumer electronics hard drives, to deliver an improved mass storage solution for portable embedded systems incorporating the Seagate S-Series CompactFlash hard disc drives High-density small form factor (SFF) hard disc drive (HDD) storage is proliferating into high growth portable and handheld consumer applications such as MP3 players, navigation systems, digital cameras and smartphones
This article was originally published on Electronicstalk on 8 Jul 2008 at 8.00am (UK)
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However, the difficulty of mating low-power embedded processors to SFF HDDs has proven to be a significant challenge, due to lack of a native IDE interface.
As a result, developers sacrifice performance, and therefore battery life.
In response, QuickLogic has created a companion device to connect Seagate S-Series disc drives to Intel's PXA2xx processors.
QuickLogic and Seagate have performed benchmark tests on different data buffer sizes and disc drive densities.
The results continuously demonstrate the theoretical maximum effective transfer rate of the disc drives.
"We've worked closely with our processor partners to create easy-to-use, low-power companion devices connecting embedded processors and peripheral technologies", said Kevin Yee, Director of Business Development at QuickLogic.
"As a result of this focused strategy, QuickLogic has enabled Seagate S drives to connect to embedded processors in the most energy efficient manner".
"This combination of technologies will enable us to push into new portable and handheld applications".
"Most embedded processors do not have a direct or native interface to IDE-based SFF HDDs".
"QuickLogic not only provides an excellent companion device, but extensive testing has demonstrated that their solution helps us to achieve maximum performance while minimising system power and optimising CPU utilisation - critical to the user experience in portable consumer products", said Todd Buelow, Business Development Manager at Seagate Technology.
The QuickLogic companion device integrates a full-featured IDE bridge controller and local bus interface for embedded processors and is available now.
In volume quantities, the device sells for less than $5.
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