The SATA-IO (Serial ATA International Organization) has announced the new SATA Revision 3.2 specification. The new standard will carry a number of awaited features.
For starters, the new specification will have support for the SATA Express standard. The SATA Express standard, in short, is the use of a PCIe bus to drive storage devices. While there have been PCIe based storage devices before, the SATA Express standard will unify the system and allow operating systems to get away with only needing one driver to use the devices. SATA Express will also allow devices to run at speeds of up to 2.0 GB/s, as compared to just 6 Gb/s for the SATA3 standard.
"SATA technology continues to evolve to accommodate ever-changing storage industry requirements. 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," said Mladen Luksic, SATA-IO President.
The new standard will also hold the M.2 form factor, which is accepted as the next evolution of mini-PCIe. The M.2 form factor can do more than just accept storage devices. It also accepts WiFi cards, USB cards, WWAN cards, and more. Other features that will be found in the SATA 3.2 specification include DevSleep, USM, Transitional Energy Reporting, Hybrid Information, microSSD, and Rebuild Assist for reconstructing RAID arrays.
SATA-IO will be attending the Flash Memory Summit on August 13 through August 15 in Santa Clara, where we can expect more information to be released.