The Serial ATA Working Group announced two specification development milestones at the Intel Developer Forum. One centers on doubling the signaling speed for Serial ATA, the other on new cable and connector solutions to support additional applications and usage models. The specification for the second generation Serial ATA signaling speed – 3Gbps – has been completed and the release candidate of that specification has started its ratification process. The second-generation speed of 3Gbps (300MB/s) is double that of the first-generation Serial ATA speed which is 1.5Gbps (150MB/s).

A selection of Serial ATA products supporting 3Gbps signaling speeds have already been announced. Once the ratification process is complete in about 30 days, those products that comply with the spec can be marketed as 3Gbps Serial ATA products.



Volume 2 of the cables and connectors specification adds several new cabling options:

-An internal multi-lane cable and connector assembly for streamlining connections between multiple internal host ports and internal devices or short backplane.
-An external consumer cable and connector solution that accommodates use of Serial ATA with external storage devices.
-External multi-lane datacenter cable and connector solution for connecting multiple Serial ATA channels between chassis in a datacenter.


Products based on the new cable and connector ingredients are expected to appear by the end of the year.