Seagate and AMD Shows Off 6Gb/sec SATA Hard Drives

Today at the Everything Channel Xchange Conference AMD and Seagate demonstrated the first SATA hard drives to operate at 6 Gbps. SATA drives today usually operate at either 1.5Gb/sec or 3Gb/sec. The new 6Gb/sec interface doubles the speed of the latter and also offers backwards compatibility with 1.5 and 3.0 SATA interfaces - allowing for seamless integration into existing technology already in place toady.

"The increasing reliance of consumers and businesses worldwide on digital information is giving rise to gaming, digital video and audio, streaming video, graphics and other applications that require even more bandwidth, driving demand for PC interfaces that can carry even more digital content. The SATA 6Gb/second storage interface will meet this demand for higher-bandwidth PCs. 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." Joan Motsinger a VP at Seagate said.

SATA 6Gb/s, or SATA Revision 3, will be avaliable in the first half of 2009. Seagate has said the first 6Gb devices should be commercially available later this year.

Leslie Sobon of AMD said that "AMD strives to deliver platform technology that our technology partners can use to create high-performance desktop and laptop PCs. The new SATA 6Gb/second technology not only incorporates the best features of previous SATA generations but also includes new enhancements. This innovation enables AMD to continue to evolve its technology platforms and to develop low-cost designs that our technology partners can use to improve their own PC and laptop products."

SATA 3.0 or 6Gb/sec has finally arrived and it's official release has taken place. We now must wait for the industry to adapt to the new technology. We'll probably see SATA 3.0 in new devices sometime next year.