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The new SATA Slimline connector interface
New small-form factor and mobile enhancements specified in revision 2.6

The Serial ATA International Organization, also known as SATA-IO, today announced its latest Serial ATA specification – SATA revision 2.6 (PDF). The latest SATA revision 2.6 adds new physical and performance features to the previous SATA revision 2.5, also referred to as SATA 3.0Gbps, specification.

New physical features added to the SATA revision 2.6 include internal cable specifications for small-form-factor systems and mobile PC applications. SATA revision 2.6 specifies a new internal slim-line cable and connector. The new Slimline cable and connector target tightly packed small-form-factor systems. SATA-IO also defines the internal micro SATA connector with ultra mobile PCs in mind. The new internal micro SATA connector specification is for 1.8” hard drives only right now.

In addition to the small-form-factor and ultra mobile PC benefits of SATA revision 2.6, SATA-IO defines a new mini SATA multilane cable and connector. The new mini SATA multilane cable and connector specification is for internal and external SATA usage. Do not expect to see mini SATA multilane connectors on consumer desktop systems, however. SATA-IO defines the specification for use internally in high-bandwidth backplanes and externally for high-bandwidth external storage enclosures.

Physical enhancements aside, SATA revision 2.6 introduces new performance improvements to the SATA specification. Native Command Queuing, or NCQ, receives upgrades beneficial to desktop and notebook systems. NCQ priority enhancement is the latest feature and prioritizes data during complex workloads. On the mobile improvements sides of things, a new NCQ unload enhancement feature makes it way into the SATA specification. This new feature increases mobile SATA hard drive robustness, especially in drop-prone environments.

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This doesn't make sense
By Dactyl on 3/7/2007 8:11:30 PM , Rating: 2
You think SATA 2.6 is cutting edge? I've had a SATA 3.0 drive for the past two years. Is mine beta or something?

You can buy hard drives that are SATA 1.5, SATA-II and SATA 3.0. But I've never seen a SATA 2.5 or SATA 2.6. I don't think they even really exist.

DailyTech fell for a hoax, hook line and sinker.

(before you downrank me, I'm not serious)




RE: This doesn't make sense
By exanimas on 3/7/2007 8:31:13 PM , Rating: 2
Due to some of the comments I've seen on this website, it wouldn't have surprised me if you were 100% serious.


RE: This doesn't make sense
By Omega215D on 3/7/2007 8:33:08 PM , Rating: 2
It's just that some sites such as newegg use the throughput number after the SATA. So SATA-II would be labeled as SATA 3.0 (as in Gbps). but yeah it's kind of weird.


RE: This doesn't make sense
By kensiko on 3/7/2007 8:48:03 PM , Rating: 2
Yes that is true. But I really think, with one channel, that 3 Gbps is completely unuseful.

By the way, I'm new here. How can you have an impact on a comment's rating ?


RE: This doesn't make sense
By AndreasM on 3/8/2007 11:25:07 AM , Rating: 2
Comments are modded up or down through the worth reading/not worth reading links in a post. Replying to a comment removes all your mods from the thread. Welcome. :)


RE: This doesn't make sense
By johnsonx on 3/9/2007 12:16:53 PM , Rating: 2
you can't rate comments until you've posted comments yourself a number of times. I don't know how many you need though; AFAIK no one has ever disclosed the precise formula.


RE: This doesn't make sense
By BMFPitt on 3/8/2007 10:10:37 AM , Rating: 4
Who needs that DDR3 stuff? I have DDR version 800!

:)


RE: This doesn't make sense
By S3anister on 3/8/2007 12:16:54 AM , Rating: 2
dude... seriously i know...


RE: This doesn't make sense
By Thmstec on 3/7/2007 8:32:55 PM , Rating: 2
there is no 3.0, you must be thinking of sata-300(aka SATA-II), which is actually wrong, the Sata group has no sata II, there is sata-IO, but wtf is the standard on it...so damned confusing. its pretty much become "what features does the drive have?" (150mb or 300mb, NCQ, blah blah blah)


RE: This doesn't make sense
By Dactyl on 3/7/07, Rating: -1
RE: This doesn't make sense
By johnsonx on 3/9/2007 12:19:21 PM , Rating: 2
Why mod the guy down for that? It's actually vaguely funny, since that's pretty much what Native Command Queueing does.


RE: This doesn't make sense
By Spivonious on 3/7/2007 10:40:18 PM , Rating: 3
No, it's 3.0Gbps for SATA-II and 1.5Gbps for SATA. 150/300Mbps would be extremely slow by today's standards (about 18.75-37.5MBps, whereas the best IDE is UDMA133).


RE: This doesn't make sense
By Snipester on 3/7/2007 11:34:31 PM , Rating: 2
Please...... are you serious?

There is NO SATA II... it does not exist. It exists maybe in marketing fluff as 300GBps as i have seen it labelled as such on actual products.

its called 1.0 then 2.5 etc.....

Same as PCIe spec. 1.1 then 2.0 .......


RE: This doesn't make sense
By Visual on 3/8/2007 1:19:45 PM , Rating: 2
um... when he said 300mb/s he meant megabytes, not megabits.
and that is the same as 3Gbps, if you count parity bits.


RE: This doesn't make sense
By Spivonious on 3/22/2007 2:31:44 PM , Rating: 2
well, being a tech site, it's generally assumed that people know the jargon.


RE: This doesn't make sense
By pepperxn on 3/7/2007 8:42:03 PM , Rating: 2
Here's the only thing that I could think of:

serialATA is 150MBps or 1.5Gbps
serialATA 2(2.0) is really serialATA-IO. This is spec 2.0. IO doesn't have to be 3.0Gbps or 300MBps. This is what most people don't understand. So before you buy a motherboard, and/or hard drive check the specs.
So spec 2.5 and 2.6 adds some features like the actual speed increase, NCQ, etc. Not all 2.0 drives include the speed boost to 300MBps/3.0Gbps.
There are revisions to the specs like adding new features.
Like within a year or so there will be serialATA at 600MBps, but they'll probably call it serialATA 6 (6.0). This would be spec 3.0.
By owning a 3.0 drive now, you probably really mean 3.0Gbps, which is the 300MBps serialATA-IO (serialATA-2.0)


RE: This doesn't make sense
By MPE on 3/7/2007 11:52:38 PM , Rating: 2
quote:
serialATA is 150MBps or 1.5Gbps [snip] you probably really mean 3.0Gbps, which is the 300MBps


1.5 Gb/s is not 150 MB/s. It is actually 187.5 MB/s. Nor 3.0 Gb/s equals 300 MB/s. It is actually 375 MB/s.


RE: This doesn't make sense
By InsaneScientist on 3/8/2007 12:48:48 AM , Rating: 2
Actually in this case it is.

The SATA specification transfers 10 bits per byte for some reason, though only 8 are needed.
Maybe a start and stop bit? I don't have a clue.
All I know is with SATA 1.5Gbps does equal 150MB/s and 3Gbps really does equal 300MB/s

Why can't they keep things consistent? >_<


RE: This doesn't make sense
By AndreasM on 3/8/2007 11:21:52 AM , Rating: 1
It's to reduce interference. However, those 10 bits still only contain 8 bits of real data, so technically you're both right. :)

Wikipedia has more if you're interested:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/8B/10B


RE: This doesn't make sense
By Oregonian2 on 3/8/2007 7:14:58 PM , Rating: 2
1000BASE-X gigabit ethernet (over fiber) uses 8B/10B as well, so the gigabit serial stream really runs at 1.25 Gb. It gives DC balance as well as provides a minimum number of data edges from which to do clock recovery (else a large block of data that's all ones or all zeros would be a problem).


RE: This doesn't make sense
By Golgatha777 on 3/8/2007 11:26:25 AM , Rating: 2
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/8B10B

Ah, learn something new every day. SATA uses 8B/10B encoding, which means that SATA150 is really 150MB/sec actual data throughput due to the 8bit to 10bit encoding.