It's not that often we change storage interfaces on the PC market, but in 2009 it is time, twice even. SATA 6Gbps, also known as SATA 3, will take over for our harddrives and SSDs while the USB3.0 interface will enable new possibilities for external storage units. We are still awaiting the first retail products using the new technologies, but when Intel launches its first Core i5 platform, Intel P55, there will be several motherboards with both SATA 6Gbps and USB3.0 support, but only through discrete chips.
Intel will not be offering SATA 6Gbps or USB3.0 with chipsets this year but rumors are going around that AMD will trump Intel and have the first SATA 6Gbps capable southbridge.
SB800 that is expected to launch in the first quarter of 2010 will bring integrated support for SATA 6Gbps, and even the new USB3.0 standard will work with AMD's new chipsets, but alas it requires external control chips from third parties.
Earlier reports been spoken of AMD's SB850 southbridge with SATA 6Gbps support in the fourth quarter this year already, so we may get an even sooner launch actually.
ASUS P6X58 is one of the first Intel P55 boards with SATA 6Gbps support
If this is fast enough to reach the market before Intel it will be a real nice achievement for AMD, even if Intel will hardly go under since it supports the technologies using third party solutions.
The first SATA 6Gbps and USB3.0 devices are expected to appear near the end of 2009.
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