New SATA spec offers faster data and slimmer laptops

The Serial ATA (SATA) Revision 3.0 specification has been released by the Serial ATA International Organization (Sata-IO) and promises double the data speed across the board to 6Gbps.

The new standard will allow data transfers for up to 6GBps between devices on the motherboard, double the speed of SATA 2. The new standard is fully backwards compatible with previous versions of the standard so motherboard manufacturers can introduce it without backwards compatibility issues.

"As speed becomes critical to today's storage, the SATA Revision 3.0 specification doubles the maximum transfer speed enabled by technology, paving the way for a new generation of faster SATA products," said Knut Grimsrud, SATA-IO president and Intel Fellow and director of storage architecture.