20th Anniversary

Infographics

History of SATA

Member Stories

In Memoriam

Member Archive

Infographics

View the SATA 20th Anniversary infographic page here

History of SATA

SATA was introduced to the world in February 2000 through the efforts of APT Technologies, Dell, Intel, Maxtor, and Seagate. The specification offered a faster and more efficient data transfer, and many in the industry saw how SATA provided a groundbreaking method of data storage and IT operations. The technology was strong enough to attract over 80 members within four months and the initial standard showed no signs of stopping its rapid growth. In 2004, SATA-IO officially incorporated and by 2008 SATA had close to 100% of the desktop PC market share.

Over the years, thousands of products from cables and connectors, HDDs, SSDs and optical drives to peripherals and test and validation tools have been certified. Now, twenty years after its inception, SATA remains one of the most stable and economical solutions for near- and long-term storage, used by both consumers and enterprise users.

Since 2004, the mission of SATA-IO has been to support the SATA specification. Some of the revision highlights follow:

Revision Number Speed Release Highlights
SATA Revision 1.0a 1.5 Gb/s January 2003  
SATA Revision 2.0 3 Gb/s April 2004  
SATA Revision 2.6   February 2007
  • Errata against Revision 2.6
  • Internal slimline cable and connector
  • Internal SATA connector for 1.8" HDD
  • NCQ enhancements
  • Various other enhancements
SATA Revision 3.0 6 Gb/s August 2008
  • Errata against Revision 2.6
  • Gen 3 register assignments
  • Various clarifications
  • New NCQ commands
  • Align SATA 2.6 with ATA8-ACS
  • Revisions for Gen3i
SATA Revision 3.1   July 2011
  • Errata against Revision 3.0
  • Removal of Gen1x and Gen2x
  • Speed clarifications
  • Application of SATA 2.5 Design Guide 2
  • Hardware Control Feature Mechanism
  • Protocol changes for 6G SATA
SATA Revision 3.2   August 2013
  • Errata against Revision 3.1
  • Support SSD features
  • Introduction of Device Sleep
  • Introduction of Rebuild Assist
  • Introduction of Transitional Energy Reporting
SATA Revision 3.3   February 2016
  • Errata against Revision 3.2
  • New Power Disable features
  • New and modernized commands
  • Various clarifications from previous specification versions
SATA Revision 3.4   June 2018
  • Errata against Revision 3.3
  • Clarifications on writeable logs
  • DevSlp timing requirements
  • Obsolete SATA Express
SATA Revision 3.5   June 2020  

 

[INCLUDE 1.0 SPEC PRESS RELEASE]

Images of the first native SATA drive, courtesy of Robery Dixon

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Member Stories

Thanks to all of our members who contributed memories from the last twenty years. We've collected a few of the responses below. Any members who would like to contribute more are welcome to email administration@sata-io.org or contribute to the 20th Anniversary Members Wiki on the SATA-IO members-only website.

General reminiscence 

A couple of weeks ago it suddenly occurred to me that as we entered 2020 that 20 years ago we were right in the middle of the SATA work.  I mentioned it to Jim and thought a 20th anniversary celebration was in order, especially since SATA has lived for twice as long as our original 10 year goal!!!  I found some old emails from late 1999 so this would be about the times we were meeting in dark Maxtor warehouses!!! - Tony Priborsky

Development

I got in really in Phase II.  As I recall Maxtor was the first company in after APT and Intel.  -  Tony Priborsky

Products, demos, and testing

I recall the IDF where we promised a demo at the end of the IDF presentation, and the punchline for the demo was that the presentation was being driven by a system running a dongled prototype SATA drive, so folks had been seeing the demo all along. Unfortunately, I wasn’t’ able to find that IDF presentation in my archives as it appears to be earlier than the extent my archives go back. - Knut Grimsrud

We had the prototype dongles just barely reading and writing the day of a WinHec conference. Pete Deyring and Knut were at the conference and we shipped something last minute for Knut to give a demonstration. It was just some reads and writes using a test program. Microsoft made a statement afterward that they would never support Serial ATA (back then we all swore we would never let it be called SATA).

Two months later there was an IDF, I believe in Santa Clara. We had the dongles running all the current operating systems and Knut gave a presentation. At the end of the presentation he said that the demo was that his powerpoint presentation was made using the Serial ATA dongles. Microsoft then made a press release that said “See what we did to enable Serial ATA.” All of SATA was predicated on making it so there was no software modifications necessary and we had achieved that. - Scott Richmond

I was APT’s representative to the SATA digital committee from very shortly after the start. I was also the first one to make a SATA prototype work.

The prototype was a Xilinx FPGA with a FibreChannel phy. It was  a parallel to serial converter and then back from serial to parallel. One of the people from Quantum dubbed them the dongle/anti dongle, which stuck for quite a while.

I don’t remember the date, but I worked from my home in the hills outside of Boulder Co. I had the dongles mostly working, but was having trouble with the PIO Read Multiple command which was used by the Win 98 installation program, so I couldn’t successfully install Windows. I had compiled the FPGA with a bug fix and was going through the install in my home office. My 20 year old son was standing in the doorway talking to me. When the install got past the read multiple command and I knew that I would have a successful install I got giddy. I had worked long and hard on this project and it was such a great feeling to have it work. My son looked at me and said “Dad, I have seen Windows 98 install lots of times.” - Scott Richmond

Comraderie

In the early days we used to have a tradition of giving each other spoof awards. This is the award Pete Deyring gave me during the early days of the initial primary definition efforts. - Knut Grimsrud[PHOTO NEEDED]

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In Memoriam

Frank Chu Gene Milligan
Klaus-Peter Deyring Mark Evans
Marc Noblitt  
   

 

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Member Archive

This list acts as a thank you to all those members of SATA-IO who have contributed to the growth of the specification and the ecosystem in the last 20 years. Thank you!

Accusys Inc. Exceltek Electronics (HK) Ltd.  LucidPort Technology, Inc  Shenzhen Longsys Electronics Co., Ltd.
Achronix Semiconductor ExpertIO, Inc.  Luxshare-ICT Co. Ltd.  Shenzhen Luxshare Precision Industry Co., Ltd.
Acon Advanced Connectek Inc Faraday Technology Corporation  LyCOM Technology, Inc.  ShenZhen TIGO Semiconductor Co., Ltd.
Actel Corporation FCI  Macpower and Tytech Technology Co., Ltd.  Shenzhen Tronixin Electronics Co.,Ltd.
Adaptec, Inc. Finisar  Mad Dog Multimedia  Shenzhen Unionmemory information system Limited
ADATA Technology  Co., Ltd. FirmTek, LLC  Magnum Semiconductor  Shinwa Sangyo Ltd.
Addonics Technologies Fixstars Corporation  Marvell Semiconductor  Siemens AG
ADTEC Corporation Flexstar Technology  Maxim Integrated Products, Inc  Sierra Logic, Inc.
Adtron Corporation Flextronics International (Taiwan) Ltd.  Maxiotek Corporation  SIIG, Inc.
Advantest America Inc. Formation, Inc.  Maxtor  Silicon Image, Inc.
Aeluros Foxconn Interconnect Technology, Ltd.  MediaTek Inc.  Silicon Integrated Systems Corp.
Agere Systems Inc Freeport Resources Enterprises Corporation  MegaChips Corporation  Silicon Motion, Inc.
Airconnect Solutions (Asia) Ltd Freescale Semiconductor, Inc.  Memoright Corporation  SiliconStor Inc.
Alcor Micro, Corp. Fujikura/DDK  Mentor, a Siemens Business  SK hynix
Algoltek, Inc. Fujitsu Computer Products of America Inc.  Mestec Technologies  SkyCABLE Enterprise Co., Ltd
Allion Labs, Inc. Fujitsu Technology Solutions GmbH  Micron Technology, Inc.  Skymedi Corporation
ALPS Electric Co., Ltd.  Genesis Technology USA, Inc.  Microchip Technology Inc.  Skyviia Corporation
Alta Engineering   Genesys Logic Inc.  Microsoft Corporation  SMART Modular Technologies
Amco Tec International Inc.  Global Unichip Corp.  Miltope Corporation  SMK Corporation
AMD  Glory Mark Electronic Ltd.  MiraDeed Technology Corp.  Socionext Inc.
Amphenol Corporation  Golden Bridge  Mitac International Corporation  Soft Mixed Signal Corporation
Annapurna Labs Ltd.  Granite River Labs Inc.  Mitsubishi Kagaku Media  Solid State Storage System
Anritsu Company  Greatland Electronics Taiwan Ltd  MOAI ELECTRONICS CORP  Solid State Storage Technology Corporation
Apacer Technology Inc.  GREEN HOUSE CO., LTD  Mobius Microsystems  Somagic, Inc
Applied Micro Circuits Corp.  Greenliant Systems  Molex Incorporated  Sonetek Technology Corp.
Areca Technology Corporation  Guidance Software, Inc.  MoSys Inc  Sonnet Technologies, Inc.
Ariba Technology Co., Ltd  Guizhou Huaxintong Semiconductor Technology Co., Ltd.  Motorola  Sony Optiarc Inc. 
ARIO Data Networks  Hagiwara Solutions Co., Ltd.  Myung Information Technologies Co., Ltd.  Space Shuttle Hi-Tech Co., Ltd.
Aristos Logic  Haoguo Xing Ye Share Co., Ltd (Sea World Enterprise)  National Technical Systems  Speed Tech Corp.
ARKUS Inc.  HCL Technologies Ltd.  NEC Corporation  SSMEC
ARM  HDL Design House  Neltron Industrial Co., Ltd  STEC
ARTEK INC.  Hewlett Packard Enterprise  NetCell Corporation  STMicroelectronics Inc.
ARTRAY, INC.  HGST  Netcom Technology (H.K.) Co., Ltd  Storage Vision Co., Ltd.
ASAP International Co., Ltd  High Top Precision Electronic Co. Ltd.  Netlist, Inc.  StorArt Technology Co., Ltd.
ASICS World Service, LTD  Highly Reliable Systems  Newtech Co., Ltd.  Sunext Technology Co., Ltd.
Aska Technologies  HighPoint Technologies, Inc.  Niketech Electronic Corporation  Sunnytek Information Co., Ltd
Asolid Technology Co., Ltd.  High-Top Precision Electronic CO., LTD.  Northstar Systems Corp.  Sunplus Innovation Technology Inc.
ASUSTeK Computer Inc.  Hitachi - LG Data Storage Korea, Inc.  Novatek Microelectronics Corp.  Super Micro Computer
ATI  Honda Tsushin Kogyo Co., Ltd.  Novus Labs, LLC  Suyin Corporation
ATP Electronics, Inc.  Horng Tong (HOMETOM) Enterprise Co., Ltd.  nSys Design Systems Pvt Ltd  Suza International France
Avago Technologies  HUA CHENG TECHNOLOGY CO LTD.  Nvidia Corporation  Swissbit AG
Avery Design Systems  Hua Ya Plastic & Metal Co. Ltd  NXP Semiconductors  Synopsys
Axell Corporation  Hunan Goke Microelectronics Co., Ltd.  OCZ Storage Solutions Inc.  SyntheSys Research, Inc.
Bafo Technologies  Hunan RunCore High-Tech Co., Ltd.  Omneon Video Networks  Tai Twun Enterprise Co., Ltd
Beijing Zettastone Technology Co., Ltd.  Hyperstone  Oracle  Taiguen Enterprise Co., Ltd.
Bell Microproducts  IBM Corporation  ORICO Technologies Co., Ltd  Taisol Electronics Co., Ltd
BiTMICRO NETWORKS, Inc.  IIX Consulting  Orient Semiconductor Electronics, Ltd.  Taiwin Electronics Co., Ltd.
Biwin Semiconductor (HK) Company Limited  Ikanos Communications Inc.  Other World Computing  Tamagawa Denki, Ltd.
Biwin Storage Technology Co., Ltd.  Imation Corp.  Oversea Win Technology (HK) Limited  TC&C Electronic Co., Ltd (Suntecc Inc)
Bizlink Technology  INDILINX Co., Ltd  Pacific Digital Corp.  T-CONN Precision Corp.
Blancco Oy Ltd  Infineon Technologies  Paist Design Group, LLC  TDK Corporation
Broadcom Limited  Infortrend Technology, Inc.  Panasonic Corporation  TE Connectivity
Buffalo Inc.  INISTOR  Parade Technologies  TEAC Corporation
C I Design  Initio Corporation  PDE Technology Corporation  Team Group Inc.
Cadence Design Systems  Innodisk Corporation  PerfectVIPs, Inc.  Tech - Technologist Purchasing
Catalyst Enterprises Inc.  Innopower Technology Corporation  Pericom Semiconductor  Tektronix, Inc.
Centon Electronics, Inc.  Innostor Technology Corp.  PHILIPS & LITE-ON DIGITAL SOLUTIONS CORP.  Telechips Inc
CEVA  Integrated Device Technology  Philips Consumer Electronics B.V.  TeleCommunications Systems, Inc.
CHANT SINCERE CO., LTD  Intel Corp.  Phison Electronics Corp.  Teledyne LeCroy
Cherng Weei Technology Corp.  IntellaSys Corp.  Phoenix Technologies Ltd.  TennRich International Corp.
Chipidea Microelectonica SA  IntelliProp Inc.  Phylinks  Texas Instruments
Chrontel Inc.  Interelectronix  Pioneer Corporation  Top Yang Technology Enterprise Co., Ltd.
Ciena Corporation  International Microsystems Inc.  PLE Technology Co., Ltd  Toshiba Corporation
Ciprico Inc.  IO Interconnect  Plextor LLC  Toshiba Memory Corporation
Circuit Assembly Corp.  IOGEAR  PLX Technology  Total Technologies
Cisco Systems, Inc.  Iomega  PMC-Sierra, Inc.  Tragant Handels-und Beteiligungs GmbH
CMS PRODUCTS, INC  I-PEX CO., LTD  PNY Technologies, Inc.  Trimax Electronics Co., Ltd.
Comax Technology, Inc.  Iriso Electronics Co., Ltd.  Power Quotient International Co., Ltd.  TTA
Component User Industry Co., Ltd.  ITE Tech. Inc.  Prolific Technology Inc.  ULi Electronics Inc.
Copan Systems  ITT Cannon, Ltd.  Promise Technology, Inc.  ULINK Technology
CoreSolid Storage Corporation  J.S.T. Mfg. Co., Ltd.  ProStor Systems, Inc.  UNIC Memory Technology Co., Ltd.
CPR Tools Inc.  Jabil Circuit, Inc.  PT. HIT Electro Mechanics Indonesia  Unicorn Electronics Components Co., Ltd.
CRU-Dataport  Jacobs Parts Inc.  P-TWO Industries Inc.  Unigen Corporation
CRUZ Systems  Jalink Technology Inc.  QLogic Corporation  University of New Hampshire InterOperability Lab
Cypress Semiconductor  Japan Aviation Electronics, Ltd  Quanta Storage Inc.  USI (SH) Co., LTD
Dallas Semiconductor  JDSU  Quantum Corp  VIA Technologies Inc.
DataStor Technology Co., Ltd.  Jei Wei Electronic Co., Ltd  Ranoda Electronics Pte. Ltd.  Viking Technology
Delkin Devices, Inc.  JESS-LINK PRODUCTS CO., LTD.  Rapid Conn, Inc.  Virtium Technology Inc.
Dell, Inc.  Ji-Haw Industrial Co., Ltd  RATOC Systems, Inc.  ViXS Systems, Inc.
Delphi Connection Systems  JMicron Technology Corporation  Realtek  VMC Consulting
Denali Software, Inc.  Joinsoon Electronics Mfg. Co. Ltd.  Renesas Electronics Corporation  VSO Electronics Co., Ltd.
DensBits Technologies Ltd.  Kano Technologies  Renesas Technology Corporation  Wavecrest 
Der An Electric Wire & Cable Co., Ltd.  Keen Top International Enterprises Co., Ltd.  Rise Moral Tech Limited  Weihai Honglin Electronic Co., Ltd.
Dialog Semiconductor  KEL Corporation  Ritek Corporation  WELI SHENG TERMINAL INDUSTRIAL CO., LTD
DongGuan City MingJi Electronics Co., Ltd  Keysight Technologies  RITEUP Co., Ltd.  Western Digital Corporation
Dongguan ShuangYi Electronic Technology Manufacturing Co., Ltd.  KEYW Corporation  RMI - Raza Microelectonics, Inc.  Wieson Technologies Co., Ltd.
Dongguan Yizhao Electronic Co. Ltd.  KingSpec Electronics Technology Co.,Ltd.  ROHM Co., Ltd.  Wilder Technologies, LLC
DoTop Technology, Inc.  Kingston Digital Inc.  S34A, Inc.  WIN WIN PRECISION IND., CO., LTD.
Drapho Electronics Technology Co., Ltd.  KnowledgeTek, Inc.  Samphone Electronic Co., Ltd.  WINGSONIC LTD.
Dynabook Inc.  Knowlent Corporation  Samsung  Winpoint Electronic Corp
Ease Software, Inc.  KYOCERA-ELCO  SAMTEC INC  Wintec Industries
Efficere Technologies  LaCie  San Shing Electronics Co., Ltd  Wipro Limited
ELECOM CO., LTD.  Landwin Electronic Corp.  SANDFORCE INC.  Workbit Corporation
Electronics Testing Center, Taiwan  Lattice Semiconductor Corporation  SanDisk Corporation  Xilinx, Inc.
Emulex Corporation  Lenovo Japan, Ltd.  Sanko Electronics Co., Ltd.  Xinshun Hardware (Shenzhen) Co., Ltd.
ENE TECHNOLOGY INC  LG Electronics Inc  Santa Electronics Inc.  Xyratex Technology Ltd
Energy Full & Hi-Top International Ltd.  Lin Shiung Enterprise Co., Ltd.  Seagate  Y.C. Cable USA, Inc.
Energy Full Electronics Co., Ltd  Linpo Industrial Ltd  Seiko Epson Corporation  Yangtze Memory Technologies Co., Ltd.
Entery Industrial Co., Ltd.  Lite-On Technology Corporation  Semtech-Snowbush IP  YEONHO Electronics Co, LTD
Entorian Technologies L.P.  Logic Devices Inc  Sensata Technologies  YM Electric Co., Ltd
EqualLogic  Logitec Corporation  SerialTek  Zarlink Semiconductor
Essencore Limited  Longwell Electronics Inc.  Shanghai Zhaoxin Semiconductor Co., Ltd.  Zetera Corporation
ETRON Technology, Inc  LOTES CO., LTD  Shenzhen Lianlianfa Technology Co., Ltd.  

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Title: 
20th Anniversary