Seagate demos 6Gbps SATA interface

Currently most computers support either the SATA or SATA2 interface for connecting storage devices at cap throughput speeds of 1.5Gbps and 3Gbps, respectively, or 150MBps and 300MBps. However, with solid state drives increasing in speed and capacity along with files getting bigger, a faster interface might be necessary in the short to medium term – and Seagate apparently has the answer.

In conjunction with AMD, the company is showing off their tentative SATA3 spec, which reaches theoretical speeds of 600MBps while being backwards compatible with existing devices. The new spec will also feature improved power management and data streaming support in addition to its faster pipeline. Neither company is actually announcing products based on the technology yet, but according to Seagate, you can expect the first SATA3-based hard drives to arrive by the end of the year.