What is SATA or Serial ATA?
SATA or Serial ATA (Advanced Technology Attachment) is the next generation drive interface, following the traditional Parallel ATA (PATA). Anyone who has peered into a computer is familiar with the flat, 40-wire parallel cables that connect the hard drive, CDROM and other devices to their controllers. PATA has been the standard and has served well, but it has also had drawbacks. Cables limited to 18 inches (46 cm) in length often made connections difficult and also clogged cases blocking airflow, while cooling has become crucial. Though rounded cables became available, the most advanced PATA drives (Ultra ATA/133) hit the maximum parallel transfer rate of 133 MB/ps. With the speed of CPUs, RAM and system buses improving, designers saw PATA would soon be bottlenecking advanced drive efficiency in system architecture. Enter SATA. Serial ATA has distinct key advantages over its predecessor. Cables are very thin with small 7-pin connectors. They can be up to 3 feet (1 meter) in length, and
Serial ATA is the next evolution of the hard drive ATA standard, previously at “UltraATA 133”. Serial ATA is supposed to be faster and better, but in small increments, and with a completely different interface. They are showing up on some mainboards as premium options, and most includes an adapter so you can still use regular UltraATA drives. However, most PC’s comes with only one adapter.
