SATA

(Serial ATA) The common interface for hard disks and optical discs in the computer. SATA is the serial version of the parallel ATA (PATA) interface, which was launched in 1986. Introduced in 2002, SATA offered significantly higher speed, transferring data in each direction at 1.5 Gbps. A year later, SATA II increased speed to 3 Gbps. In 2008, SATA III bumped speed to 6 Gbps.

SATA and PATA drives are "integrated drive electronics" (IDE) devices that combine the disk controller and drive in one unit (for more on the earlier IDE/PATA drives, see IDE).

Smaller Cables and Connectors

SATA uses a four-wire shielded cable up to one meter in length compared to the wide, flat, 18" PATA cables. Both cables and connectors are considerably smaller than their PATA counterparts.

External SATA Drives (eSATA and eSATAp)

Offering higher speeds than external USB 2.0 drives, external SATA (eSATA) drives can be plugged into the computer and hot swapped. Cables up to two meters long attach eSATA drives to an eSATA port on a newer laptop or to ports on a plug-in card for a desktop computer. Designed for numerous insertions, eSATA plugs and sockets are more rugged than internal SATA connectors.

eSATA drives require a separate power cable; however, powered eSATA (eSATAp) includes the power in the cable. See IDE and SAS.

SATA and PATA Cables

The dramatic difference in cable size is an added benefit of SATA. The earlier parallel cables took up a lot more room inside the case.

SATA and PATA Ports

This earlier motherboard included PATA slots for optical and floppy drives. All four SATA slots barely took up the room of one PATA connector.

Powered eSATA and USB Combo Port

The powered eSATA port (eSATAp) on this laptop allows an external SATA drive to be attached with one cable. The port also accepts a USB device.

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