The Serial ATA International Organisation (SATA-IO) announces two new SATA standards-- SATA Express and SATA µSSD.
SATA Express combines the SATA software infrastructure with the PCI Express (PCIe) interface, enabing the development of SATA-compatible devices using the PCIe interface.
The technology will thus increase device speeds to 8Gb/s and 16Gb/s while using PCIe 3.0's performance and scalability.
SATA Express specification should be complete by 2011's end.
Meanwhile SATA µSSD eliminates the traditional SATA inteface's module connector, enabling OEMs to produce a single-chip SATA implementation for embedded storage applications.
It consists of a new electrical pin-out, allowing SATA delivery via single ball grid array (BGA) package sitting directly on the motherboard-- enabling what SATA-IO says is the smallest SATA implementation to date.
SATA-IO is also working on interoperability tests for different SATA µSSD devices, ensuring devices based on the standard are compatible with each other.
SATA µSSD is already available in SanDisk's iSSD embedded drive, while Samsung and Toshiba express their support for the standard.