SATA-IO Introduces the SATA v3.2 Specifications

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A new revision of the SATA specification has been announced by the SATA-IO, and it comes with some very impressive new specifications.

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.

mSATA (left) and M.2 (right)

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.

Niels Broekhuijsen
Niels Broekhuijsen

Niels Broekhuijsen is a Contributing Writer for Tom's Hardware US. He reviews cases, water cooling and pc builds.

15 Comments Comment from the forums
  • MKBL
    - Isn't it more appropriate to put them on the same unit when they are compared? 16 Gb/s vs 6 Gb/s.

    "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."

    - Any comment on SATA port location on motherboard? The current geometry can be inconvenient when a huge graphics card is installed.

    Reply
  • pjmelect
    "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."

    2.0GB/S = 20Gb/S (aprox) so it is three and a bit times faster.
    Reply
  • back_by_demand
    Agreed with using same terminology for transfer speeds, admittedly if you have an interest in this stuff and don't know you have 8 bits in a byte you should just go away and get another hobby, but the principle is sound. But disagree with the moan about SATA port locations as the assumption based on the comment is that all board vendors have ports in the same location when they clearly don't. But otherwise this is great news, all it takes is for an SSD maker to construct a 1Tb 3.5" unit which is 4 x 240Gb 2.5" units in RAID and suddenly the transfer speed goes through the roof and we need faster SATA speeds. Maybe the recent 3D storage breakthroughs are the kind of speed and storage tech that will require this enhancement. Keep up the good work, a trillion bits per minute is pretty sweet.
    Reply
  • Kewlx25
    Current SATA is rated in microsecond latency, PCIe is rated in nanosecond latency. I can't wait to see how this makes a different.
    Reply
  • universal remonster
    11322115 said:
    "2.0GB/S = 20Gb/S (aprox).

    No... it doesn't. By using your math we could also say that 80% = 100% (aprox).

    8bits in a Byte would be 2GB/s = 16gb/s, making it less than three times faster.
    Reply
  • milktea
    11322885 said:
    11322115 said:
    "2.0GB/S = 20Gb/S (aprox).
    No... it doesn't. By using your math we could also say that 80% = 100% (aprox).
    8bits in a Byte would be 2GB/s = 16gb/s, making it less than three times faster.
    I believe SATA spec Gb/s is stated in 2^30 bits/s instead of 1x10^9 bits/s. For SATA3.0, 6Gb/s actually does give you 600MB/s taking into account for 8b/10b and some extra headroom. So I'm not surprise that SATAexpress 2GB/s is indeed 20Gb/s.
    Reply
  • MetzMan007
    Why data 3.2, I think data 3 has been out loud g enough to call it data 4. It's already confusing enough when some says data 3 because data 2 was also know as data 3 because it was 3Gb/sec
    Reply
  • ojas
    11322115 said:
    "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."

    2.0GB/S = 20Gb/S (aprox) so it is three and a bit times faster.
    This might actually be correct if 2GB/s is the actual realisable throughput.

    There's about 25% overhead on SATA (which is why SATA III gives you 600 MB/s instead of 750 MB/s that you should get by direct conversion of 6 Gb/s), so if you're getting 2048 MB/s, then the actual interface provides 2048 x 1.25 = 2560 MB/s = 20,480 Mb/s = 20.48 Gb/s.

    HOWEVER, since PCIe 3.0 only enables up to 8 Gb/s (GT/s, to be more accurate) and PCIe 4.0 enables 16 GT/s, I think SATA 3.2 enables a 16.38 Gb/s interface (2 GB/s x 8 bits per byte) and not 20 Gb/s.
    Reply
  • ojas
    11323537 said:
    Why data 3.2, I think data 3 has been out loud g enough to call it data 4. It's already confusing enough when some says data 3 because data 2 was also know as data 3 because it was 3Gb/sec
    Pretty sure it's called SATA. :P
    Reply
  • aluop
    11323485 said:
    11322885 said:
    11322115 said:
    "2.0GB/S = 20Gb/S (aprox).
    No... it doesn't. By using your math we could also say that 80% = 100% (aprox).
    8bits in a Byte would be 2GB/s = 16gb/s, making it less than three times faster.
    I believe SATA spec Gb/s is stated in 2^30 bits/s instead of 1x10^9 bits/s. For SATA3.0, 6Gb/s actually does give you 600MB/s taking into account for 8b/10b and some extra headroom. So I'm not surprise that SATAexpress 2GB/s is indeed 20Gb/s.

    First of all, binary units are almost never used when talking about communication speed,
    The M and G here are metric not binary.
    Also,

    SATA 3.0 channel speed: 6Gb/s
    SATA 3.0 actual data speed: 0.6GB/s not 0.75GB/s because of 8b/10b encoding

    PCIe 3.0 channel speed: 8Gb/s per link
    PCIe 3.0 actual data speed: 1GB/s per link because it's using the more efficient 128b/130b encoding

    SATA Express = 2 lanes PCIe 3.0 = 16Gb/s = 2GB/s
    Reply