SATA is being replaced in high-performance storage situations but is not disappearing anytime soon
With the upheaval taking place in the memory market, a new rumor has emerged about the demise of the Serial Advanced Technology Attachment (SATA) drive interface. It was quickly shut down, but the signs are there that momentum is against the widely deployed interface used to connect storage devices to a computer’s motherboard.
The potential demise story started last month with a report in PC Gamer that said Samsung would phase out production of SATA-based SSDs in 2026. Samsung is the market leader in the SSD arena, with 15% to 18% of the market according to IDC.
This news came on the heels of Micron ending its consumer product division called Crucial in favor of Enterprise products. And the word was Samsung, being pinched by a memory shortage like everyone else, was ending consumer support in favor of the enterprise market, which is much more profitable.
Other consumer and gaming enthusiast sites picked up on the news, but Samsung has since denied the reports. Whether or not this proves true, there is no denying that the momentum is clearly in favor of NVMe over SATA, experts say. NVMe has been mainstream for at least a decade now and is a much more palatable M.2 form factor; it looks like a stick of gum and sits flat on the motherboard.
SATA drives come in a 2.5-inch plastic form factor and require two cables, one for the interface and one for power. M.2 takes up no space and requires no cables.
Then there’s the performance issue. SATA III, the latest revision of the specification, maxes out at about 550 MB/s. NVMe uses the much more advanced PCI Express interface. PCIe 5.0 has a maximum speed of 16GB/s, although benchmarks put it closer to 14GB/s.
The SATA 1.0 interface made its debut in 2003. It was developed by a consortium consisting of Intel, Dell, and storage vendors like Seagate and Maxtor. It quickly advanced to SATA III in 2009, but there never was a SATA IV. There was just nibbling around the edges with incremental updates as momentum and emphasis shifted to PCI Express and NVMe.
So is there any life to be had in the venerable SATA interface? Surprisingly, yes, say the analysts. “At a high level, yes, SATA for consumer is pretty much a dead end, although if you’re storing TB of photos and videos, it is still the least expensive option,” said Bob O’Donnell, president and chief analyst with TECHnalysis Research.
Similarly for enterprise, for massive storage demands, the 20 and 30 TB SATA drives from companies like Seagate and WD are apparently still in wide use in cloud data centers for things like cold storage. “In fact, both of those companies are seeing recording revenues based, in part, on the demand for these huge, high-capacity low-cost drives,” he said.
“SATA doesn’t make much sense anymore. It underperforms NVMe significantly,” said Rob Enderle, principal analyst with The Enderle Group. “It really doesn’t make much sense to continue make it given Samsung allegedly makes three to four times more margin on NVMe.”
And like O’Donnell, Enderle sees continued life for SATA-based high-capacity hard drives. “There will likely be legacy makers doing SATA for some time. IT doesn’t flip technology quickly and SATA drives do wear out, so there will likely be those producing legacy SATA products for some time,” he said.
