Free driver speeds Windows

A simple disk-driver change could reap big rewards for many desktop Windows systems

Windows systems bought before autumn 2001 may gain a performance boost of about 50 percent if organisations install a free IDE disk driver made by Intel.

Firms that do not want to invest in new PCs or to upgrade low-end servers may be able to give their existing systems a substantial performance lift simply by loading the newer Intel driver.

Intel produces versions of Intel Application Accelerator (IAA) software for all 16bit versions of Windows since Windows 98, and all 32bit versions since Windows NT 4.0. Although IAA drivers are only suitable for specific Intel chipsets made since April 1999, the chip giant produces similar software for older Intel chipsets, such as the popular i440 series. Intel said the software improves the performance of any IDE-based systems fitted with Pentium II or more recent chips.

Markus Weingartner, an Intel spokesman, said, "The IAA is our IDE driver for Intel chipsets. Basically it improves the performance of IDE disks." Weingartner said that Intel's benchmark figures suggest disk performance is improved by 44 percent with the driver, though results to be published in the October issue of IT Week's sister magazine PC Magazine are expected to indicate a 100 percent improvement for some applications.

Weingartner said the software also quickens the loading of the operating system and applications; and it includes support for disks larger than the normal Windows limit of 137GB.

Intel does not supply a similar driver for Linux systems. "The Linux community is pretty good at writing drivers, and there is a pretty good IDE driver for Linux that does not come from Intel," Weingartner added.

Intel launched the driver quietly on 10 September last year. Major PC manufacturers including Dell and Acer pre-install it on some models. However, many PCs lack the driver. For example, IBM installs it only on systems sold with Windows NT4. The driver is not on Windows installation disks.

Many servers built with Intel chips and IDE disks, such as thin rack-mountable servers, blade format servers, or Pentium 4 Xeon servers using the i860 chipset, could also gain a significant performance boost by replacing the standard Windows IDE driver with the Intel one, according to Intel. However, Weingartner added, "The most obvious benefits will be on desktops and mobiles."

But IT staff may have difficulty discovering whether individual systems have the software installed. There is no single method of discovery that can be used for all systems, but in most cases there will be an IAA entry on the Windows Start bar. Intel said there have been at least 2.2 million downloads of the driver which, together with more information, is available from the Intel link below.

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