SATA

SATA (Serial Advanced Technology Attachment (Serial-ATA) is one of many computer bus interfaces used to connect to the hardware bus, hard disk drive, CD/DVD drive, solid state SSD drives, and other devices.

The SATA interface was developed back in 2003 as a replacement for ATA (IDE). At the same time, SATA-IO (Sata International Organization) was formed. It is this organization that is dedicated to improving, supporting and releasing new versions of SATA (e.g. SAS).

SATA Versions

. Let’s look at the major versions of SATA: 1.x, 2.x 3.0, and e-SATA.

1.x

. The very first interface solution, operating at 1.5 GHz and providing a maximum data transfer rate of 1.5 Gbps. Approximately 20% of this is utilized by the 8b10b coding system, with an additional 2 bits of service data for every 10 bits.

In total, SATA 1.x provides a bandwidth of 1.2Gbps (150MB/sec), which is much faster than the fastest PATA/133, but not as efficient in terms of performance as NCQ-enabled AHCI mode.

2.x

. This revision of SATA was able to increase the frequency of operation to 3 GHz, creating a wider bandwidth of 3 Gbps. The effective data transfer rate was 2.4 Gbps, which is almost twice as fast as the first revision. At the same time, the SATA 2.x revision is fully compatible with the 1.x revision. This also applies to the cables for connecting the interface to the work machine.

3.0

. The third revision was introduced by the company in 2008. SATA 3.0 can provide a bandwidth of 6 Gbps. The full-fledged launch of the technology took place in 2009. The effective speed of the interface amounted to 600 MB/sec, and the frequency of operation increased to 6 GHz.

SATA 3.0 also retained full compatibility with previous revisions both in the way of information transfer and in terms of cables. Only the power management system has been modernized.

The main area where 6Gbps throughput is needed is SSDs. Hard disk drive machines do not need this kind of data transfer rate.

e-SATA

. One variation of the SATA interface that is faster than IEEE 1394 and USB 2.0. If we compare e-SATA with previous revisions, the former has received such changes:

• shielded connectors provide multiple disconnect/connect to the working machine;
• loss compensation has been revised, and as a result it is possible to use two-meter long cables;
• two separate cables are used, one for power and one for data transmission

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e-SATAp

. This is a more advanced e-SATA connector that does not need an additional power cable. That is, e-SATAp is a universal portable interface with USB 3.0 output. But this solution turned out to be unclaimed because of the simplified realization of the USB-interface itself.