New Group Formed To Continue SATA Spec Development, Promotion

September 12, 2004

Dedicated to sustaining the quality, integrity and dissemination of Serial ATA (SATA) technology, 40 leading computer component and peripheral companies announced today the formation of the Serial ATA International Organization (SATA-IO).
The new organization builds on a long heritage of effective SATA organizations starting with SATA 1.0 in early 2000, to SATA II in 2002 and now SATA-IO. The working group's transition to SATA-IO, a formal industry association, indicates the member companies' long-term commitment to continue delivering technology and high-quality specifications that meet the needs of a rapidly changing market.

"Our transformation to the Serial ATA International Organization shows our members' dedication to the future of this technology," said Knut Grimsrud, SATA-IO chairman and senior principal engineer at Intel Corporation. "The new organizational structure is long-term, self-sustaining and empowers the SATA community to build a mighty and mature market for SATA offerings. SATA-IO will continue to maintain specifications, promote and market the benefits of the technology, foster quality and interoperability in products, and define new Serial ATA technology and future interface speeds that carry the storage industry into the next decade."

The current SATA-IO technology roadmap includes enabling the 3Gb/s technology defined in the newest SATA spec, which was released in July. The group also plans to expand membership to include additional optical storage vendors, storage controller and hard drive vendors, system builders, storage semiconductor designers and computer technology designers.

Companies that have a strong vested interest in the SATA technology are encouraged to join the organization. Benefits of membership include early access to draft specifications via members-only access to the specification development Web site, free copies of final published SATA-IO documents, licenses to new technology developed under the SATA-IO organization, opportunity to participate in SATA-IO interoperability labs, and licenses to use the SATA logo. To ensure continuity and momentum, SATA-IO is led by a new board of directors from the former Serial ATA II Working Group promoter companies: Dell, Intel, Maxtor, Seagate Technology and Vitesse.

At Intel Developer Forum
SATA-IO is showcasing its newest technology features and specifications in booth 446 this week at Intel Developer Forum. Highlights include the first demonstration of the 3Gb/s spec-running from the host to the disc drive-presented by AMCC and Seagate. Hitachi Global Storage Technologies and Silicon Image also are demonstrating the new 3Gb/s spec using a native host and connecting 2 TB of storage through an external port multiplier.

"Many of the SATA-IO member companies have begun development based on the SATA 3Gb/s and external SATA specification, so it's encouraging to show these new advances for the first time at IDF," said Joni Clark, SATA-IO marketing chairwoman and Seagate's manager of SATA marketing. "Our hands-on lab class also gave IDF attendees a unique opportunity to work with the latest SATA technologies, hear lectures and tips from the industry experts and receive a sample of the latest latching and external SATA cables."