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AKASA
Luminous Round ATA100/133 IDE Cables
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Author : Wayne
Date : 22nd July 2002
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Left to Right ~ Floppy, 45cm, 60cm and 90cm Cables
Introduction :
Compared to 12 months ago
there's a lot less attention being paid to the rounded cable
which is a shame because as cosmetic case mod products went
the rounded cable was one of the more functional. I'd hazzard
a guess that most PC enthusiasts have rounded cables in their
rigs to help improve airflow through the case but there's also
a more cautious group of enthusiasts who have avoided their
use because of the circulating rumours concerning lost data,
cross talk problems, CD burning problems and general efficiency
concerns. From personal experience I'd have to say that most
of these worries are totally unfounded, I've burnt many hundreds
of CDs on rounded cables with no increase in my coaster collection.
I've also transferred and shuffled more data than I care to
think about across the humble rounded cable and I've yet to
hit a problem that I can pin down to its design.
The rounded cables I have
on test today are from AKASA. In addition to offering a full
range of lengths these cables feature a semi-transparent outer
shroud with steel braided shielding visible beneath. It doesn't
stop there however as AKASA decided to spice things up a little
by making the outer shroud luminous, oh yes these things glow
in the dark too! Bit of a gimmick? Probably but if the performance
is up to scratch I'm not complaining, let's take a closer look.
A Closer Look :
One of the great advantages to rounded cables
apart from their more aerodynamic properties is their flexibility.
I'm sure most of you at some time have been faced with an awkwardly
routed ribbon cable that needed a qualification in Origami to
tidy up. Invest in a good quality set of rounded cables and
that's a problem you'll never face again.
90cm Cable
The outer shroud is extremely
flexible and feels like a silicone rubber rather than a conventional
rubber or plastic. The flared end caps are not fixed to the
main shroud which also allows greater flexibility when you need
to bend the cable sharply as it allows the caps to slide on
the shroud itself. Unlike the original cables AKASA produced
these now come with a tug-tab so you can safely remove them
without putting undue stress on the individual wires. Unfortunately
the IDE connectors on our 8K3A+ were a little tight and the
tab came off in my hand leaving connector still in the board.
Not a biggie for most people who'll be fitting and forgetting
and it doesn't do any damage to the actual connector itself,
it just means a little more care is needed when it comes time
to whip off the cable next time.
Potential problems :
(reproduced from our inital AKASA round cable review)
As I mentioned earlier,
the rounding of ATA-100 cables may seem simple and even sensible,
but from a technological standpoint it is not considered the
wise thing to do. The first transition from ATA-2/3 to UltraATA
involved allowing data to be transferred on both the rising
and falling edges of the clock, much in the same way DDR operates.
This in itself was enough to prompt concerns about data integrity.
The switch to UltraATA-66/100 however and its increased frequency
pushed beyond the theoretical limit of the standard 40 conductor
(40 wire) IDE cable, and in a attempt to ensure reliable operation
and safe transfer of data, a new cable was designed that added
an additional 40 ground wires to the existing 40 data.
These 40 ground wires were
sandwiched between the data wires to eliminate ringing and crosstalk
between them, a phenomenon that occurs when data from one data
wire bleeds over to the adjacent wire. In theory, this crosstalk
isn't likely to introduce huge levels of data error, but what
it can do is increase setup times. Setup time is the time taken
for an individual wire to settle back to a normal state after
having carried a pulse of data, so if a wire is receiving external
interference, it may take longer to settle again and thus it
delays the sending of the next data pulse. This is a very simplistic
way of describing what happens, but it does offer an insight.
From the viewpoint of crosstalk
then it should be obvious that the separating of the individual
wires reduces the effectiveness of the ground wires as you may
now have data wires running right alongside each other. Well,
this is true, but as with most things in life there's a flipside
to the argument. Another major source of interference within
the IDE cable comes from external EMI (Electro Magnetic Interference)
created by things like your floppy drive, power supply and so
on. I've heard claims that as much as 75% of the errors on the
IDE line are as a direct result of external EMI, so although
separating the wires on your IDE cable may increase the risk
of crosstalk, the additional shielding provided by the shroud
can also reduce EMI within it. It's a contentious area that
could probably be argued about all day, but one fact that's
not in question is that the best way to ensure data integrity
is to use the shortest cable possible, and that goes for ribbon
cables as much as rounded. If you can make do with a 45cm rather
than a 90cm cable, then do it.
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