Chip flaw delays Marvell SATA 6Gb/s launch
Marvell Semiconductor's 88SE9123 SATA 6Gb/s chipset has been delayed due to a flaw with the PATA backwards compatibility.
According to ExtremeTech, the company has been forced to delay its 88SE9123 SATA chipset after discovering issues with backwards compatibility – a delay which has reportedly lead to its removal from planned Lynnfield motherboards from both Asus and Gigabyte.
In a statement, a Marvell spokesperson confirmed that “a hardware issue” was indeed responsible for the delays, but reassured customers that this wasn't down to the recently-ratified SATA 6Gb/s standard: rather, the issue is one of backwards compatibility with old parallel ATA (PATA) devices.
Marvell claims that the issue comes from the “legacy PATA functionality, not the SATA” and that customers looking to implement the 88SE9123 chipset won't be left in the dark too long. Stating that a solution has already been identified, Marvell claims that testing with regards to “compatibility and performance” continues and that a 2009 launch is still on the cards.
The news is unlikely to please the Serial ATA International Organisation, which had high hopes for the new standard, claiming that the finalised spec would lead to additional speed “without compromising the quality and performance [consumers] have come to expect.” While the issues is unrelated to the SATA standard itself, the 88SE9123 was considered a flagship product for SATA 6Gb/s – and any delays are likely to cost the standard.
Should companies be looking to ditch the ageing PATA standard in favour of SATA anyway, or do you applaud Marvell for taking the time to get their chipset right before release? Share your thoughts over in the forums.
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Discuss in the forums ReplyTwo words. Optical drives.
3 words:
SATA optical drives.
LOL, exactly what I was thinking.
I suppose that there's probably more people using PATA optical drives still than PATA hard disks these days but as suggested previously, who buys a top end mobo with SATA-3 capabilities and then kicks up a stink because they need to shell out £15 for a SATA optical drive?
I've had expensive optical drives, and cheap optical drives. The noise didn't track with cost whatsoever, even the build quality didn't track with cost. I've got a cheap Samsung drive that's been flawless for years while a more expensive NEC drive is no longer able to burn a reliable DVD disc.
It may have been true that an expensive CD-RW or DVD-RW drive was better (due to a larger buffer) but now that under-runs are both less likely to happen and no longer an issue you can get a cheap drive and no longer worry.
Must say though, using SATA drives has improved both the aesthetics and airflow of my case. Must say that ever since SATA optical drives came out I've never wanted a mobo with an IDE or floppy connector - it takes up room and means really rubbish chips end up on the board *cough* jmicron *cough*. Drop PATA/IDE and save a few pennies on the board I say!
If people need it, then they can get an add-in PCI or PCIe card.....
The floppy and IDE connectors should have gone with the new sockets, AM3 and 1366/1156...
+1 for dropping PATA
Having both also lengthens boot up times too.
If PATA were dropped from the spec, all of a sudden your SATA optical drives you thought was future-proofed would become defunct.
I'm sure they used to around 2002 or so, there's a box full under the spare bed here.
Gooooo on, ditch PATA and use the space for something shiny!
Somehow, I don't think they heard you.
It's PATA Compatibility mode people, the Physical PATA is usually handled by a seperate chip anyhow's
This problematic chip is THAT separate chip you are talking about. These boards have 6x SATA/300 connectors, and the extra stuff is usually handled with extra chips, this time with this Marvell - which means 2x SATA/600 connectors and a PATA connector. And no, there is no problem with the ATA commands over SATA, it's just the PATA interface which is problematic.
So yes, ditch the goddamn PATA part, if anyone still wants PATA drives they can get a extra PCI card.
"normal" users wont upgrade for 3 to 5 years at least and some even longer. Pata will still be around for a good few more years weather you like it or not.
Look at you MB they still have PS2 links for the keyboard and mouse all though its probably not needed.
Leave my PS/2 Alone! My mighty Model M Needs it!!! :D
I do appreciate we use new Tech far more readily then 99% of consumers... hell, I have customers that are quite happy using a combo of a G3 Laptop and a Win95 PC.
But I do think that, although I use a lot of Legacy ports (PS/2, PCI, and COM), they do need to die off fairly soon now. I'll just buy a PCI-e card to add any functionality I need... I would rather they used the die real-estate for far more shiny functions and features. I suspect you will see PATA die off in the next round or 2 of chip designs, at least on the high end kit.
I also stand corrected..sort of. hadn't quite twigged that the extra chip's problems were purely on the Physical PATA port. Teach me to read a bit more carefully next time eh?
But those people also don't buy the latest bleeding edge mainboards.
Besides, each mainboard manufacturer releases like 20 different boards based on the same chipset anyway, there is really no need for all of them to have all those ancient connectors, I mean they could ditch them on atleast one of them, which does not mean they can't include them on some other sku.
PS/2 keyboard must be kept as it works even if nothing els does not (no mouse port you can put an 2 port USB in its place like GA do)
USB is not as Plug in play can be more Plug in pray of pop up and asking you to press enter to install the USB host controller or the mouse and keyboard it self {hate new dells that do that they do not even give you 6 ports on the back to compensate your loss of 2 ports}
98% of customers don't even know the difference between sata/pata, and 90% of those don't care either. Over 3/4 of all our customers use oem systems; ie. dell/hp/acer/etc..
Even though most of the machines I see have sata connectors, usualy 2 or 4 ports, they will still have either a hard drive or optical or both on pata. When they upgrade to a new machine, and don't want to loose their data, or want more than one optical, it saves me a great deal of labor to just pop their old hard drive in as opposed to the time it takes to move the files over to a new/larger drive.
I Would also say I would rather have all my sata ports filled with hard drives, as opposed to loosing some due to using optical drives as well. But I'm a media junky, and try not to delete old programs, even if I don't use them.
Current motherboards have something like 10 internal sata ports... don't tell me that you cant spare 1 or 2 for optical drives.
PS: I don't count eSATA as internal SATA.
And on some asus mobos.
well duh!;)