May 2007
Volume 2, Issue 2

In this Issue:

Do You Feel the Need…the Need for Speed?
SATA-IO Makes Headlines at IDF Beijing
Feature Your Product on the SATA-IO Web site!
Spring 2007 Events Recap

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Do You Feel the Need…the Need for Speed?
By Melissa Johnson, SATA-IO Marketing Team Member, Seagate

Look for the next Serial ATA interface speed – 6Gb/s – coming to an area near you by the end of this decade. 6Gb/s is short for 6 gigabits per second, the speed at which the devices will transfer data. With twice the bandwidth of SATA 3Gb/s, devices will soon spend less time transferring data and will consume less power. Most importantly in this ever-changing industry is that SATA 6Gb/s delivers on the increasing need for speed and data movement. Our industry is exploding with the desire to move data at a faster rate – downloadable and creatable digital content such as movies, videos and photos are all driving this demand. The minds behind SATA 6Gb/s expect to deliver a viable spec by mid-2008.

What’s Happening?

The major SATA 6Gb/s parametrics have been determined and 6Gb/s PHY has been implemented in a way that allows ASIC development to proceed without additional complexity to the design. The spec for the initial internal application, Gen3i, is directed to be completed in mid-2008. Additional work is underway to ensure an effective eSATA environment. Developers, as well as end-users, are continuing to strengthen the spec with needed analysis.

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SATA-IO Makes Headlines at IDF Beijing

With increased APAC outreach as part of the 2007 SATA-IO marketing efforts, the Marketing Workgroup exhibited and supported press efforts at the Spring Intel Developer Form, April 17-18, in Beijing, China. Being the largest internationally attended IDF to date, with more than 6,800 participants, the showcase remained intimate and was continually filled with press and attendees inquiring about membership and the latest updates with the SATA technology. The booth was staffed by various local colleagues from Fujitsu and Silicon Image. Booth staff dispersed membership messaging, as well as high-level technology updates on the SATA 2.6 specification.

SATA-IO PR provided on-site support and coordinated ten one-on-one press/analyst meetings with Knut Grimsrud, SATA-IO president, as the official spokesperson.  Press representation spanned all over the globe with press from China, Australia, UK, and others. Knut addressed the latest 2.6 spec revision, the upcoming SATA 6Gb/s spec, and the roadmap for SATA-IO. These messages can be viewed in more than 30 feature articles.

View the ‘Intel talks SATA and Flash’ article recapping IDF Beijing!

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Feature Your Product on the SATA-IO Home Page

Have you seen the latest changes to the SATA-IO Web site? Be sure your company logo is included in our home page membership banner www.sata-io.org!

If you would like your company’s logo added to the banner, please provide SATA-IO Administration with the following information:

• Your company name
• Your company URL (or URL of your company’s SATA products)
• Your company logo on a white background as either a .JPG or .GIF file with a minimum height of 60 pixels

SATA-IO has also added a product feature section to the home page. To include your product, please provide the following information:

• Your company name
• Your product name
• Your company URL (or URL of your company’s SATA products)
• Image of your featured product on a white background as a .JPG. Image size must be a minimum of 320x240

SATA-IO will feature one product per company for a two-week period.

Please send your product feature information to SATA-IO Administration

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Spring 2007 Event Recap

Plugfest #8 and Interop Workshop #3: April 30 - May 4, 2007
SATA-IO hosted the eighth successful Plugfest and third Interop Workshop. With nearly 150 attendees and five days of testing, SATA-IO tested more than 60 products. One of the key focus areas for Interop Workshop #3 was the testing of Slimline ODD products.

Be sure to keep an eye out for new product additions to the Integrators List!

SATA-IO thanks the following sponsors for their support:      

Industry Forum and Annual Members Meeting: April 30, 2007

Knut Grimsrud, SATA-IO President, presented to more than 75 attendees during the recent SATA-IO Annual Members Meeting. Knut highlighted SATA-IO activities in 2006 and addressed the roadmap for the organization, including the 6Gb/s specification and product development. The Annual Meeting presentation is available for member download from the Members Only area of the Web site.

Annual Meeting attendees were also addressed by Conrad Maxwell, SATA-IO Marketing Chairman, and event sponsors Finisar, LeCroy and BERTScope. As SATA-IO Marketing Chairman, Conrad highlighted the unprecedented growth in CE storage where consumers are creating media files at an increasing rate. Enterprise storage has shown a 4% growth rate while multi-media storage has a 33.5% growth rate. The shift to the digital lifestyle has grown with the expansion of mega pixels per photo, fidelity in music compression, and the new demand for creating and sharing videos. This growth in personal content shows signs of dwarfing the commercial storage capacity needs as we go into the future. Conrad also illustrated the shift from PATA to SATA in desktop and notebook markets.

Event sponsors Finisar, LeCroy and BERTScope also spoke to attendees about tools for supporting improved SATA testing. Yamini Shastry, from Finisar, highlighted their Xgig Product Family, a Serial ATA Testing and Analysis Tool Set. Michael Schnecker from LeCroy illustrated a measurement method to improve interoperability with better testing while Bent Hessen-Schmidt with BERTScope addressed the value of interoperability testing and 6G tools available by BERTScope.

The event presentations are available for download from the Members Only area of the SATA-IO Web site.

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Please submit any future article ideas and topics to Conrad Maxwell, SATA-IO Marketing Chair, Silicon Image.

Sincerely,
SATA-IO Administration