Chapter 2: The Serial ATA Transition

Overview

The successful transition is the first and foremost concern for Serial ATA. If barriers to adopting the new specification are either economically or technically insurmountable, the specification fails its stated mission to replace parallel ATA. If the barriers to adoption are identified and addressed early in the development process, then the specification will accomplish its mission.

New industry specifications and related technologies all follow a familiar pattern of development, delivery, and (assuming success) mainstream use. This book applies specific terms to each stage.

• Industry Interoperability Specification Development: The need is identified; a technical specification for interoperability is established.

• Migration: Component-level products from multiple suppliers become available. New technologies often exist alongside older technologies.

• Transition: These components are integrated into system-level products and displace older technologies in mainstream products.

• Adoption: System-level products appear in homes and businesses.

This chapter focuses on transition, specifically the work required to integrate Serial ATA into desktop PCs, laptops, servers, and appliances.

Removing Barriers to Transition and Adoption

According to Everett Rogers, author of Diffusion of Innovations, the pace of adoption for new technologies is either gated or facilitated by five factors: relative advantage, compatibility, complexity, trialability, and observability. Learning lessons from previous storage interface specifications, we are presented with SCSI and Fibre Channel, two wonderfully contrasting case studies in specifications adoption.

The key question is: Why does SCSI dominate market share rather than FC? The answer lies in the top two items in Rogers list: relative advantage and compatibility. Historically, OEMs and IHVs...