Seagate Technology on Monday shipped a hard disk drive featuring the SATA 6 Gb per second interface, a third-generation standard that has twice the maximum data rate of the previous technology.

The 7200 RPM Barracuda XT is a 3.5-inch desktop drive that offers 2 TB of storage. The new product is available to computer makers and fits SATA 6 Gb/s motherboards from ASUS and Gigabyte. Seagate plans to demonstrate the Barracuda XT this week at the Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco.

The Serial ATA International Organization released the full 3.0 specification in May. The Barracuda XT is a four-platter drive that features an a real density of 368 Gb per square inch and delivers burst speeds up to 6 Gb/s for all PC applications.

In addition, the drive is backward compatible with the second-generation SATA 3 Gb/s and the first generation SATA 1.5 Gb/s interfaces. The Barracuda XT uses the same cables and connectors as previous generations to ease integration.

The new product is aimed at manufacturers of high-performance PCs, such as gaming systems and home and small business servers. The drive has a 64 MB cache optimized for the fastest data rate speeds.

"Capacity and performance remain the defining attributes of hard drives for PC gamers, digital multimedia content developers and many other customers requiring high-end systems at home and in the office," Dave Mosley, executive VP of sales and marketing at Seagate, said in a statement.

ASUS was the first to launch a native SATA 6 Gb/s interface on a motherboard, releasing the PSP55D Premium in August. Gigabyte is now shipping its competing GA-P55 Extreme motherboard.

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