Serial ATA?

[Amused]

Anyone have any idea what this is all about?

Is it going to replace the current parallel ATA standard? What of ATA 133?

From what I've read, this will be huge... if it ever becomes the norm.

 

[SilverBack]

It is pretty spiffy.
The interface looks pretty similar to the SPDIF you use on your cd-rom to sound card.
That will make your system a whole lot cleaner looking eh?

Anandtech talked about it sometime ago in an article.
Anandtech on Serial ATA at IDF

 

[Bozo Galora]

At Intel Developer Forum, Spring 2002, the formation of the Serial ATA II Working Group was announced.
The group's charge is to develop a Serial ATA II specification that will enhance the existing Serial ATA spec
for the server and networked storage market segments, as well as deliver second-generation signaling
speed.

The Serial ATA II spec will be completed in two phases: Server and networked storage features are
expected to be defined in the second half of this year, with product deployment slated for 2003; the faster
signaling rate is expected to be defined by the second half of 2003 for product deployment in the second
half of 2004. Serial ATA II products will be fully compatible with Serial ATA 1.0 products in addition to
maintaining software compatibility with today's operating systems.

IDF : Serial ATA Support
Seagate

Seagate today demonstrated the industry's first full-speed native Serial ATA hard drive technology, in form
factor and ready to integrate into future Seagate products. Seagate's breakthrough design is the first to
use on-board, native Serial ATA technology that does not need to translate incoming Serial ATA signals into
Parallel ATA protocols. This ensures the design can provide the full 150-Mbytes-per-second Serial ATA
transfer speed, with no added overhead or performance penalty. Seagate is also the first to design in
single-chip functions that previously required a physical layer chip, link and transport layer chip, and AT
controller chip. Seagate expects to ship Serial ATA hard drive products as leading chip providers begin
shipping Serial ATA discrete host controllers on add-in cards and motherboards.

Maxtor

Maxtor announced it will demonstrate its commitment and leadership in promoting the adoption of Serial
ATA with hard drive demonstrations. Maxtor's SATA hard drives are designed to increase the available
bandwidth from the disk drive to the computer system, replacing the parallel ATA interface used today.
With the Serial ATA's improved cable and connectivity to a Maxtor hard drive, there is more room in the
chassis for better system airflow and design flexibility. Direct connections from each drive to the host allow
dedicated bandwidth for each device and enable hot-plug connection capability. SATA is also fully backward
compatible with existing parallel ATA software and drivers.

Promise

Promise announced today that it will demonstrate the industry's first Serial ATA RAID host adapter at the
Intel® Developer Forum (IDF) and Intel will also showcase the Promise Serial ATA host adapter in its IDF
booth. The demonstration PCI card is based on Promise Technology's industry-leading ATA RAID engine
offering RAID 0, 1, 0+1 levels and is designed to support 150MB per second Serial ATA hard drive
prototypes with Serial ATA cabling. Promise is the pioneer and industry leader for ATA RAID host adapters
and subsystems worldwide.

LSI

LSI and Seagate announced that they will introduce the breakthrough Serial ATA interface in Seagate's
next-generation desktop PC hard disc drives. LSI Logic's proven interconnect chip technology joins
Seagate's drive-level Serial ATA developments to enable the first full-speed native Serial ATA hard drive
solution, ready to integrate into products this year. The evolutionary Serial ATA interface is expected to be
fully adopted throughout the rest of the hard drive industry by the end of 2003. LSI Logic's Serial ATA core
technology complies with the specifications set forth by the Serial ATA working group, and uses LSI Logic's
widely-adopted and integrated GigaBlaze® gigabit per second serial transceiver core along with a link
layer controller (LLC).

Serial cables

Pics

 

[Amused]

Ah, so it IS coming

I guess PC World's Q2 2002 date was a bit too optimistic? I guess this means we won't see it on home machines until late 2003 or 2004, huh? Bummer. I was hoping I could get it with my next mobo upgrade later this year.

 

[Bozo Galora]

errrr.......

They're talking about Serial ATAII not ATA1. ATA1 is imminent.

 

[thorin]

Check the HD Interface and Standards FAQ for more info.

Thorin