Home Enterprise SATA-IO Expands Support, Now Includes SMR

SATA-IO Expands Support, Now Includes SMR

by Adam Armstrong

The Serial ATA International Organization (SATA-IO) announced the release of its new SATA Revision 3.3 Specification and Unified Test Document (UTD) 1.5. The latest release introduces new features that enable higher capacity, reliability and flexibility for SATA-based products. All SATA-IO members have access to the new specification while non-members can purchase it.


The Serial ATA International Organization (SATA-IO) announced the release of its new SATA Revision 3.3 Specification and Unified Test Document (UTD) 1.5. The latest release introduces new features that enable higher capacity, reliability and flexibility for SATA-based products. All SATA-IO members have access to the new specification while non-members can purchase it.

The Serial ATA International Organization (SATA-IO) was formed in 2004 and owns and manages Serial ATA specifications as open industry standards. SATA-IO’s mission is to sustain the quality, integrity and dissemination of the SATA technology by maintaining the specifications, promoting and marketing the benefits of the technology and creating future interface features and specifications as industry storage needs evolve.

Data is growing faster than ever and more and more organizations realize that they can gain key insights from this huge data growth. But in order to gain anything meaningful from the data they need a way to store it. This in turn pushes the demand for higher and higher capacity up. One of the more recently launched technologies is Shingled Magnetic Recording (SMR). SMR is a hard drive technology that allows the tracks on a platter to be layered on top of each other, just like roof shingles on a house, to increase platter density or tracks per inch. This could give platters 25% more capacity. SMR has been incorporated into the new specification.

Additional advancements in the revision 3.3 specification include:

  • Power Disable: Allows for remote power cycling of SATA drives to help ease maintenance in the data center.
  • Single-Pin Activity Indicator and Spin-Up Control: the same pin, adding flexibility and providing users with more choices, can control An activity indicator and staggered spin-up.
  • Transmitter Emphasis Specification: A new transmitter specification increases interoperability and reliability in electrically demanding environments.

Aside from the new specifications, SATA-IO also announced the availability of its SATA compliance test requirements utilized during Interoperability Workshops and by independent test labs, Updated Compliance Testing (UTD) 1.5. This new test includes mechanical tests for mSATA and SATA M.2, as well as tests for the new Transmitter Emphasis specification.

SATA-IO Specification

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