Return of the SATA
The public availability of the next generation SATA interface took one step closer today as Seagate teamed up with AMD to demonstrate the 6Gb/s storage interface.
Talk of this latest interface has been around for a while and this looks like a piece of PR opportunism as much as anything else, but valid nonetheless. The next generation SATA interface is twice as fast as its predecessor, but is backwards compatible with the 3Gb/s and 1.5Gb/s interfaces and uses the same cables and connectors.
The unveiling has occurred at the Xchange Solution Provider event in New Orleans. It features a shipping Barracuda 7200.12 3Gb/second hard drive and a prototype Barracuda 6Gb/second drive in a desktop PC which is powered by an AMD prototype SATA 6Gb/s chipset. Seagate claims the Seagate SATA 3Gb/s drive runs at more than 2.5Gb/s and the SATA 6Gb/s drive at 5.5Gb/s.
"Seagate has a long history of being first to market with new technologies such as Serial ATA, perpendicular recording and self-encrypting drives, and is pleased to be teaming with AMD to stage the world's first public demonstration of SATA 6Gb/second storage." said Joan Motsinger, Seagate VP of personal systems marketing and strategy.
