40 computer component and peripheral companies announced today the formation of the Serial ATA International Organization (SATA-IO).

The new organization builds on former groups starting with SATA 1.0 in early 2000, to SATA II in 2002 and now SATA-IO. The working group’s transition to SATA-IO, a formal industry association, indicates the member companies’ long-term commitment to continue delivering technology and high-quality specifications that meet the needs of a rapidly changing market, a press release said.

The current SATA-IO technology roadmap includes enabling the 3Gb/s technology defined in the newest SATA spec, which was released in July. The group also plans to expand membership to include additional optical storage vendors, storage controller and hard drive vendors, system builders, storage semiconductor designers and computer technology designers.