ATA JUMPS TO GIGABIT SPEEDS.

Computer industry leaders announced that the definition of Serial ATA, the next generation ATA technology, is nearing completion. Serial ATA will supply storage interface headroom for many generations to come, beginning with 1.5Gbps, scalable to 2x, 4x and beyond.

APT Technologies Inc., Dell Computer Corp., IBM Corp., Intel Corp., Maxtor Corp., Quantum Corp. and Seagate Technology announced that each company is focusing development on products that support the new Serial ATA storage interface specification and have no plans to develop products based upon parallel technology beyond the Ultra ATA/100 interface.

Since the announcement of the Serial ATA working group effort at Intel Developer Forum in February, the group has added more than 40 contributor companies to the membership from the silicon design, cable/connector, storage, and system industries.

The seven companies have formed the Serial ATA working group and are working together to develop the Serial ATA storage interface specification for the next-generation computing platform. This interface is used to connect storage devices, such as hard disks, DVDs and CD-R/Ws, to the motherboard and is the replacement for today's Parallel ATA physical storage interface.

While maintaining compatibility with today's software, Serial ATA will provide a storage interface that meets the needs of tomorrow's computers and links emerging system and storage technologies. Serial AA will also enable computer manufacturers to design systems with cables that are simpler to route and install and will enable the use of smaller connectors and lower voltages than is possible with the existing Parallel ATA technology. The working group expects to complete the Serial ATA specification in the third quarter of this year. More information about the Serial ATA working group, and how to become a contributor and/or adopter, is available at www.serialata.org.