I wanted to spawn a discussion of hard drive and other disk interfaces. Let's talk about the present and future states of these interfaces, and how they relate to the desktop and server markets.

On the desktop side, we have the old trusty IDE interface. Do you believe this interface is running out of steam, or is there enough to keep it going for a few more years? Keep in mind that current computer needs don't even surpass ATA/66, let alone the new ATA/100 interface. Do we even need to continue to upgrade this technology? Also, what do people feel about the emergence of IEEE 1394 (firewire) technology in disk drives, or the Serial ATA interface previewed at Intel's Developer Forum last month? Do you feel these technologies can take over, and if so, how?

In terms of the server world, we have the old and trusty SCSI standard, which is still used extensively in high performance RAID arrays. Do you still see this technologyg remaining popular as it moves to faster and faster speeds? I have heard of 320SCSI and 640SCSI as being technologies on the horizon that can double and quadruple performance. Also, how about Fibre Channel? Does anybody out there have experience with this standard, and do they feel it will continue in the future? There is also talk of IEEE 1394 finding its way into the server world, as well as Intel's Infiniband technology, which works like Fibre Channel, but is much more highly scalable.

Let's try to answer some of these questions with some hard core technical speculation! If anyone has any links to more information, feel free to post. Even if you want to offer opinions, bring it on... this could be an interesting discussion.