The Serial ATA International Organization (SATA-IO) has now shared with all its members the physical layer (PHY) portion for its third generation storage interface, which will be defined in the upcoming SATA Revision 3.0 specification. SATA 3.0 is set to bring data streaming enhancements, better power management and a top transfer speed of 6 Gbps (gigabits per second) while maintaining backwards compatibility with first and second generation SATA devices.

Major drive manufacturers and controller builders are already hard at work on 6.0 Gbps-ready hardware but don't expect to see them too soon as the SATA 3.0 specs are not yet finalized. They will be though, before the end of this year.