Serial ATA (SATA)
• Serial Advanced Technology Attachment
• A standards-based interface that improves on parallel ATA
• Controller functions performed by host CPU
• SATA only supports ONE drive per interface
• Half duplex – only operates in one direction at a time
• SATA 1.5 Gb/s - interface transfer rate is 150 MB/s
• SATA 3.0 Gb/s - interface transfer rate is 300 MB/s
• SATA 6.0 Gb/s - interface transfer rate is 600 MB/s
• Supports ATA protocol & command set
• Features usually found in SCSI drives like Command Tag
Queuing, now supported by some SATA drives
– Native Command Queuing
Serial ATA continues to implement an architecture that uses the host
processor to control the drive functions.
Although it is a serial architecture, it also continues to be half duplex and the
initial implementation operated up to a burst rate of 150MB/s, 1.5Gb/s. The
later higher performance interfaces will interoperate with the older versions by
negotiating the clock down to the lowest common denominator.
SATA is now used in both desktop and laptop systems along with being
supported in many storage subsystems.
SATA disks typically operate at the lower speeds of 5400 & 7200 RPM but
have the benefit of having higher storage capacities of up to 1TB and beyond.