SATA 6 Gb/s - The Need for Speed

The Serial ATA International Organization has released the next generation of SATA standards. The new SATA standard has upped the ante for speed and is now capable of reaching throughput speeds of up to 6 Gb/s. While many technologies may not be able to take full advantage of the speed, there are a few that are able to utilize this speed to achieve optimal performance. SSDs (Solid State Drives) are one technology that is finding the new SATA standards a boost to their performance.

What is SSD?

SSD, or Solid State Drive, is the newest generation for hard drive technology. SSDs are essentially specialized memory sticks. They utilize a special kind of memory chip with erasable, writeable cells that can hold data even when powered off. It uses a cache that saves commonly accessed information which allows for increased responsiveness and speed.  There are no moving parts, so Solid State Drives are quiet, produce low heat, require less power, and are not prone to mechanical failure or damage. 

How is SSD different from a traditional hard drive?

Traditional drives use magnetic disks, or platters, that are spun by a motor. A read/write head then moves across the platters to read or write information. Speeds of these drives were limited by how fast the motors could spin the drive, how fast the read/write head could move across the disks and how fragmented the information on the drive was. Traditional drives could rarely utilize the SATA 3 Gb/s standard, let alone the increased speed that SATA 6 Gb/s offers. Traditional drives also generate far more heat than Solid State Drives, create more noise and are more prone to failure.

What does SSD have to do with SATA 6 Gb/s?

Many SSDs have surpassed the throughput provided by SATA 3 Gb/s standards. By combining these Solid State Drives and the SATA 6 Gb/s standards, more efficiency and speed can be realized by the user. While traditional drives are held back by the nature of their design, SSDs can utilize more throughput of the SATA 6 Gb/s design. By raising the bar for throughput, innovations will be created that will increase the speeds of SSD Drives, allowing them to use more of the 6 Gb/s bandwidth provided. More builders are using SSD drives to increase the system speed. SSD drives have speeds up to 3 times, or more, faster than traditional drives.

Conclusion

Speed is going to be one of the major factors for future development of storage. Currently only SSD can push past the 3 Gb/s throughput of SATA and take advantage of the 6 Gb/s speeds of the new SATA standards. SSD developers have been utilizing this speed advantage and are pushing development of even faster transfers. SATA 6 Gb/s is the only technology that is going to be able to keep up with the demands that future generations of SSD drives will require. Expect to see more SSD manufactures start reducing prices and pushing for higher speeds. MANHATTAN provides the latest SATA 6 Gb/s controllers to meet the needs of this fast moving industry.