SATA Steps Forward with New Organization

   Forty computer companies have announced the formation of a group that will be responsible for developing and marketing the Serial ATA (SATA) standard. The new Serial ATA International Organization (SATA-IO) will take over for the Serial ATA Working Group in managing the open standard. The transition from a working group to a formal industry association is intended to demonstrate the member companies' long-term commitment to the SATA. "The new organizational structure is long-term, self-sustaining, and empowers the SATA community to build a mighty and mature market for SATA offerings. SATA-IO will continue to maintain specifications, promote and market the benefits of the technology, foster quality and interoperability in products, and define new Serial ATA technology and future interface speeds that carry the storage industry into the next decade," said Knut Grimsrud, SATA-IO chairman and senior principal engineer at Intel Corporation.  
   With the announcement, the SATA-IO outlined parts of its technology roadmap, which includes the newest SATA specification released in July. That recent specification enables 3GBps technology, which was demonstrated earlier this month at the Intel Developer Forum. Other demonstrations at the Intel Developer Forum included the use of the new external SATA specification.
   Membership in SATA-IO is open to optical-storage vendors, storage-controller and hard-drive vendors, system builders, storage semiconductor designers, and computer technology designers. Members get access to specifications in development and final published specifications, can participate in interoperability labs, and can use the SATA technologies and logo.