AMD and Seagate are expected to introduce the next-generation standard for the SATA storage interface later today in New Orleans.
The current three Gbit per second interface is expected to hang around until 2011 but, by then, demand for bigger storage will mean that the interface will reach saturation, Seagate's Mark Noblitt told Extreme Tech.
The new six Gbit interface, which will also include improved queuing performance, could be introduced sooner than expected due to the demands of SSD drives according to Nobblit: "Six-gig is a perfect interface. OEMs tell us that they want to have the same SATA interface for flash as for a 1.8-inch rotating drive, so they can swap in a drive for flash, or vice versa."
And although rotating platter disks will certainly still be around by the time the new standard is implemented, it will be solid state dfrives (SSD) which will take full advantage of the higher data transfer speed.
The announcement today will only cover the interface as part of the AMD southbridge chip as the spec for the external version has not yet been finalised.
Extreme Tech