The Serial ATA International Organization (SATA-IO), the storage industry consortium dedicated to sustaining the quality, integrity and dissemination of the Serial ATA (SATA ) technology, today announced the publication of the SATA Revision 3.5 Specification. Specification 3.5 introduces features that enable increased performance benefits and promote greater integration of SATA devices and products with other industry I/O standards.

"SATA-IO has a long tradition of participating in the industry and supporting new innovative technology. These new features underscore the versatility of the SATA standard," said Jim Hatfield, SATA-IO president. "SATA remains one of the most stable, yet adaptable, interfaces in the industry. We are pleased to be able to enhance SATA's compatibility benefits for our members and the industry by adding features which allow SATA and other I/O standards to coexist in a variety of environments."

AMD's socket AM4 and socket TR4 chipsets are originally designed by ASMedia. With its "Zen" family of processors being full-fledged SoCs, the motherboard "chipset" only serves to increase connectivity, and ASMedia already holds certifications for key groups such as the PCI-SIG, USB-IF, SATA-IO, NVM-Express group, etc. It's being reported now that ASMedia will develop some, if not all 500-series chipsets, with the exception of X570. The X570 will be an in-house design by AMD, which will use its own foundry partners (likely GloFo 14 nm) to manufacture it. This presents AMD with an opportunity to harden it against vulnerabilities, and have greater control over pricing, not to mention overcoming key design shortfalls of "Promontory," such as downstream PCIe connectivity.

This flies in the face of speculation that AMD would discontinue ASMedia's supply of chipset, especially in the wake of the "Chimera" vulnerability affecting "Promontory" 300-series and 400-series chipsets. The supposedly security-hardened 500-series chipset will feature PCI-Express gen 4.0 certification. What this means is that the chipset bus between the AM4/TR4 SoC and the chipset will be PCI-Express 4.0 x4 (64 Gbps), translating to double the bandwidth. It remains to be seen if the downstream PCIe lanes put out by the chipset are gen 4.0, too. Current 400-series chipsets continue to put out stale gen 2.0 lanes, compensated for by additional gen 3.0 lanes put out by the SoC. Sources also mention that ASMedia-supplied chipsets will only hit the market toward the end of 2019, which means AMD X570 could be the only 500-series chipset option between the mid-2019 launch of 3rd generation Ryzen, and late-2019. You should be able to run these processors on older socket AM4 motherboards via BIOS updates, though.

The Serial ATA International Organization (SATA-IO), the storage industry consortium dedicated to sustaining the quality, integrity and dissemination of the Serial ATA (SATA ) technology, announced the publication of the SATA Revision 3.4 Specification. The newest SATA specification introduces features that enable monitoring of device conditions and execution of housekeeping tasks, both with minimal impact on performance.

The storage market continues to demand improvements in performance, reliability and compatibility. The industry standard group has added new features to the specification revision 3.4 so that SATA devices may offer improvements in these areas, including:

• Durable /Ordered Write Notification: enables writing selected critical cache data to the media, minimizing impact on normal operations.
• Device Temperature Monitoring: allows for active monitoring of SATA device temperature and other conditions without impacting normal operation by utilizing the SFF-8609 standard for out of band (OOB) communications.
• Device Sleep Signal Timing: provides additional definition to enhance compatibility between manufacturers' implementations.

The Samsung 850 EVO SSD has been in the market for almost three years now. In what seems to be an eternity in tech years the 850 EVO SSD, sporting the 3D NAND flash memory, has held its own in the consumer space. Back when it was released, the 850 EVO SSD heralded a new generation of price and performance combination that established it in the high end enthusiast market. With sequential read speeds of up to 550 MB/s and sequential write speeds of up to 520 MB/s, 4 KB Random Read of up to 100,000 IOPS and 4KB Random Write of up to 90,000 IOPS, the 850 EVO solidified and marked a new era of SSD computing.

But now it looks like the 860 EVO will take over where the 850 EVO left off. The 860 EVO SSD has been spotted in the database of the Serial ATA International Organization (SATA-IO) in the integrators listing as having passed interoperability. The 860 comes in variants of 250 GB, 500 GB, 1 TB, 2 TB and 4 TB SATA III in a 2.5-inch 7 mm form factor with support for Native Command Queuing (NCQ), ASR, SSP, IPMh, 3 Gb/s and 6 Gb/s transfer speeds. The 250GB drive is labeled under MZ7LH250**** with the following, 500****, 1T0****, 2T0**** marked respectively. No announcement has been made by Samsung.

Serial ATA International Organization (SATA-IO), the industry consortium dedicated to sustaining the quality, integrity and dissemination of Serial ATA (SATA) technology, today announced the ratification of its revision 3.2 specification. The latest specification includes SATA Express, a new specification that enables the coexistence of SATA and PCIe storage devices, as well as enhancements in power management, new SATA form-factors, and optimizations for solid state hybrid drives (SSHDs).

"SATA technology continues to evolve to accommodate ever-changing storage industry requirements," said Mladen Luksic, SATA-IO President. "The updates featured in the revision 3.2 specification, such as SATA Express and enhancements for emerging solid state hybrid drives, are driven by current market trends. These new features demonstrate SATA-IO's ongoing commitment to providing low-cost, high-performance storage solutions."

Transcend Information, Inc., a leading manufacturer of industrial-grade products, today announced the addition of the SSD740 2.5" SATA III 6Gb/s solid state drive (SSD) to its industrial SSD product line. Combining cutting-edge SATA III technology with a number of performance and reliability features, the SSD740 is the ultimate SSD upgrade solution - especially for devices equipped with modern processors running more advanced operating systems, such as Ultrabooks, Industrial PCs and notebooks, gaming systems, and handheld appliances.

Transcend's SSD740 SSD takes advantage of the next-generation SATA III 6 Gb/s interface, DDR3 DRAM cache, and an advanced JMicron JMF667H controller to achieve extremely fast transfer speeds of up to 530 MB/s read and 470 MB/s write. Essential for handling incompressible data, such as videos, music, and images, the SSD740 also delivers impressive 4K random read/write speeds of up to 283/267 MB per second. Full support of the TRIM command, which automatically removes deleted data permanently, and Native Command Queuing (NCQ), which optimizes the order in which received read and write commands are executed, allow the SSD740 to sustain an incredibly high level of performance while enhancing SSD durability and efficiency.

Intel may be a couple of months away from launching its Core "Haswell" processor family, and the 8-series "Lynx Point" family of chipset to back it, but is already talking to partners about the platform's successor, slated for the second quarter of 2014. Core "Haswell" introduces the industry to socket LGA1150 motherboards, and Core "Broadwell" could, in all likelihood, provide continuity to it, much in the same way "Ivy Bridge" did to "Sandy Bridge." Intel could introduce a new chipset to tag along with "Broadwell."

According to a roadmap slide seen by VR-Zone, Intel's 9-series chipset will include at least two models, the Z97 targeting enthusiasts, and the H97 targeting mainstream consumers. These chipset could drive socket LGA1150 motherboards going into the second half of 2014, and could support both "Haswell" and "Broadwell," in the same way today's 7-series chipset support "Sandy Bridge" and "Ivy Bridge." Intel could introduce a major feature with 9-series, SATA Express.

The Serial ATA International Organization (SATA-IO), the industry consortium dedicated to sustaining the quality, integrity and dissemination of Serial ATA (SATA) technology, today announced that SATA Express, a new specification that standardizes PCI Express (PCIe) as an interface for client storage, has started the ratification process. The specification has moved into the member review stage, the final step prior to the specification's release to SATA-IO members. SATA Express will be available to the general public in the next version of the specification, expected to be completed in 2013.

SATA Express enables an ecosystem for client storage in which SATA and PCIe solutions can coexist, providing a low-cost solution to fully utilize the performance of next generation solid state drives (SSDs) and hybrid drives. PCIe technology enables interface speeds of up to 1GB/s per lane in the client space, as compared to today's SATA technology at 0.6GB/s. Storage devices not requiring the speed of SATA Express will continue to be served by existing SATA technology. The specification will define new SATA Express device connectors and motherboard connectors that will support both new PCIe drives and existing SATA devices. See this page for more details.

The Serial ATA International Organization (SATA-IO), the industry consortium dedicated to sustaining the quality, integrity and dissemination of Serial ATA (SATA) technology, today announced it has finalized a new version of its Universal Storage Module (USM) standard that enables consumers to simply and easily increase the storage capacity of their mobile devices. The USM Slim specification defines a thinner, 9 mm dimension, making it an ideal storage solution for ultrabooks, tablets and other portable devices.

Demand for thinner, lighter mobile devices often results in decreased native storage capacities, limiting the amount of content consumers can carry with them. The USM Slim specification allows manufacturers to develop external storage offerings that seamlessly pair with these thin and light devices so that consumers can still have instant access to their music, movies, photos and other content at any time or place. The smaller form factor now makes it possible for thinner CE devices to integrate the USM host connector or slot to accept the 9 mm module.

The Serial ATA International Organization (SATA-IO), the industry consortium dedicated to sustaining the quality, integrity and dissemination of Serial ATA (SATA) technology, today announced the completion of SATA DevSleep, a new feature that reduces power consumption of devices. SATA DevSleep enables the development of ultra-portable computing devices based on SATA storage solutions that consume significantly less power than current offerings, resulting in longer battery life and enhanced ease of use.

DevSleep defines the lowest power state for SATA technology, allowing the PHY and other circuitry to be completely powered off, unlike existing partial/slumber states, which require a partially powered PHY. The feature allows devices to be always on and always connected without unnecessarily reducing battery life. For example, with DevSleep an ultra-thin laptop that would have previously needed to be put into standby to conserve battery life can now stay on and be immediately available for use.

The Serial ATA International Organization (SATA-IO), the industry consortium dedicated to sustaining the quality, integrity and dissemination of Serial ATA (SATA) technology, today announced it is developing SATA Express, a new specification that combines SATA software infrastructure with the PCI Express (PCIe) interface. SATA Express enables the development of new devices that utilize the PCIe interface and maintain compatibility with existing SATA applications. The technology will provide a cost-effective means to increase device interface speeds to 8Gb/s and 16Gb/s.

Solid state (SSDs) and hybrid drives are already pushing the limits of existing storage interfaces. SATA Express will provide a low-cost solution to fully utilize the performance of these devices. Storage devices not requiring the speed of SATA Express will continue to be served by existing SATA technology. The specification will define new device and motherboard connectors that will support both new SATA Express and current SATA devices.

The Serial ATA International Organization (SATA-IO), the industry consortium dedicated to sustaining the quality, integrity and dissemination of Serial ATA (SATA) technology, today announced the completion of its Revision 3.1 Specification. This latest specification update includes design requirements for the SATA Universal Storage Module (USM) for portable storage applications, along with a series of enhancements for added functionality and convenience. The features included in SATA Revision 3.1 continue to extend the speed and reliability of SATA technology to a wide variety of device segments, including consumer electronics and small form factor devices.

First introduced in January 2011, USM enables removable and expandable storage solutions for consumer electronics devices. Using USM developers can incorporate slots into televisions, game consoles, set-top boxes, computers, docking stations and other consumer electronic devices that will accept powered, cable-free storage modules with integrated powered SATA interfaces for expanding storage capacity. USM provides an easy means for developers to implement SATA technology in a wide range of consumer electronics devices, and is the first standard specification to define slots for these types of products to accept complete, powered external storage devices. It also is one of several SATA-IO initiatives designed to extend SATA technology beyond traditional PC storage.

Toshiba Storage Device Division (SDD), a division of Toshiba America Information Systems, Inc. and the pioneer in small form factor hard disk drives (HDDs), today announced a new family of high-performance 7,200 RPM 2.5-inch HDDs, including a top-end half-terabyte capacity.

The four-model line-up delivers more than a 13 percent performance improvement in disk operations compared to Toshiba's previous 7,200 RPM family, while decreasing environmental impact by eliminating or reducing the use of certain toxic and hazardous chemicals. The series also carries the SATA-certified 3Gb/s logo, which indicates successful completion of stringent interface compliance testing defined by the Serial ATA International Organization (SATA-IO), the industry body responsible for setting the standards for Serial ATA interface technologies.

JEDEC Solid State Technology Association, the global leader in standards development for the microelectronics industry, today announced that it has published the first official standard for solid-state drives. MO-297 defines the dimensions, layout and connector position for 54mm x 39mm 1.8-inch solid-state drives with a standard SATA connector. Adopting a standard form factor for these types of solid state drives will enable interoperability throughout the supply chain, benefiting drive manufacturers, product designers and consumers. Conforming to a single standard will further simplify the product design process, and increase the adoption of SSD storage solutions among different segments as replacement for the traditional hard disk drives or as complementing storage options. The MO-297 registered outline also corresponds with the SFF Committee specification SFF-8156, and the Serial ATA International Organization's (SATA-IO) Revision 2.6 specification for connector dimension and tolerance. The document with the new MO-297 standard is now available for free download here, as part of JEDEC Publication 95: Registered and Standard Outlines for Solid State and Related Products.

According to reports by TechConnect Magazine, the third generation of the SATA interface could be introduced as early as the second quarter of this year. The Serial ATA International Organization (SATA-IO), who have developed the technology, are expected to finalize specifications, with the launch of products sporting the new interface at the same time. The first backwards compatible drives to feature the new interface are expected to be solid state drives (SSD), followed by hard disk drives (HDD) shortly after. The main advancement is doubling the bandwidth from 3Gbps to 6Gbps, but until the official announcement of the final specifications are released, we will not know what further changes are in store.

Samsung Electronics announced today that it has begun mass producing of 64GB solid state drives (SSDs) utilizing the SATA 3Gb/s data interface. Some of you may be more familiar with the word SATA II, but SATA II and SATA 3Gb/s are two different terms and I prefer to stick with the right one - SATA 3Gb/s. Back on the story, Samsung said its 64GB SATA 3Gb/s SSD, which began shipping in limited quantities earlier this month, will be available as an option within the next few weeks in selected Dell and Alienware notebooks. Able to read data at 100MB per second and write data at 80MB per second, Samsung's new SSD is up to 60% faster than SATA I (1.5Gb/s) drives and performs two to five times faster than conventional hard disk drives (HDDs), according to the company. It also consumes nearly 75% less power than typical HDDs (1.45W compared to 2.1W) and at 73 grams, SSDs are much lighter than HDDs. The SATA II SSD is comprised primarily of single-level-cell NAND flash memory.

Serial ATA International Organization (SATA-IO), the consortium in charge of the SATA interface, today announced its Power Over eSATA initiative. SATA-IO has begun work on a new specification that will provide power to external SATA (eSATA) devices without the need for a separate power connection. Today, eSATA devices require an external power adapter to supply the necessary voltage for operation. Led by the organization's Cable and Connector group, the specification is targeted to provide power for a single drive directly from the host system using the Power Over eSATA cable. Key benefits will be to maintain compatibility with the existing eSATA connector form factor and retain high performance at the current maximum interface transfer rate of 3Gb/s. Power Over eSATA solutions are expected to be available on the market as soon as the second half of 2008.