SATA Ports _Everything You Need To Know
Because nowadays, people use SSD drivers to get faster data storage, but still, many systems support SATA ports. SATA port stands for Serial Advanced Technology Attachment and means advanced communication technology for communicating data storage devices such as hard disk and optical drive to the host bus.
The SATA port is an IDE standard for Integrated Drive Electronics, which are connected by cables and connectors to data storage devices and, on the other hand, to the motherboard. It provides the possibility of transferring information and data.
Information storage devices are hard disks, CD drives, and DVD drives. These data storage devices are connected to the motherboard by a SATA cable and transfer information and data. It should be noted that the data protocol uses the ATA command set. Now you may have a question, what is a SATA slot? The sata slot connects the data cable to the motherboard, which can be found with the hard drive or CD and DVD drive.
SATA port history
SATA port in 2000 to provide several advantages over PATA, such as reduced cable size and cost (seven conductors instead of 40 or 80), native hot swapping, faster data transfer through higher signaling rates, and more efficient protocol transfer. I/O queue (optional) declared. The SATA port compatibility specification originates from the international sata Organization (SATA-IO).
Before the introduction of the SATA port in 2000, PATA was known as ATA, the name AT Attachment (ATA) originated after the release of the IBM personal computer in 1984, more commonly known as the IBM AT. SATA adapters and host devices communicate over a high-speed serial cable over two pairs of conductors. In contrast, PATA uses a wide 16-bit data bus with many additional support and control signals, all at a very high frequency.
To ensure backward compatibility with legacy ATA software and applications, SATA uses the same core ATA and ATAPI suites as ATA devices. The SATA port has replaced the PATA port on desktop computers and laptops. The share of SATA port use in desktop computers was 99% in 2008, and PATA has mostly replaced sata port use. They use the PATA port to reduce the use of industrial applications and embedding in CompactFlash (CF) storage space.
SATA port features
Features of SATA port are:
Hot-Plug: After connecting the device through the SATA port, it usually works; depending on the operating system and the host, it may be set to be hot first. Unlike PATA, both SATA and eSATA ports are supported through a hot-plug design; however, this feature requires proper support at the host, device (drive), and operating system levels. In general, SATA devices meet the hot plug requirements, and most sata host adapters support this functionality. For eSATa, hot plugging is only supported in AHCI mode, and IDE mode does not support hot plugging.
Another feature of the SATA port is the Advanced Host Controller Interface or AHCI, an open host controller interface published and used by Intel, which has become the de facto standard. It allows users to use advanced SATA features such as hot-plug and NCQ command queue. It should be noted that if the motherboard and chipset do not enable AHCI, SATA controllers usually perform emulation in IDE mode, which does not allow device features not supported by ATA. Windows device drivers labeled SATA often work in IDE emulation mode unless they explicitly state that they are in AHCI mode, RAID mode, or a mode provided by a dedicated driver and command set that allows access. It has advanced SATA features before AHCI. Modern versions of Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, FreeBSD, and Linux with version 2.6.19 and later, as well as Solaris and OpenSolaris, support AHCI, but older operating systems such as Windows XP do not.
SATA port versions
A dash followed by Roman numerals usually designates modified versions of the SATA port. E.g., “SATA-III” is always displayed as SATA 6 Gbit/s to avoid confusion. In general, the SATA port versions are as follows:
Sata 1: It is the first version of the SATA port, which has a speed and capacity of 5 Gb/s and 150 MB/s, respectively.
Sata 2: In this version, the NCQ queuing technique was added to sata, which leads to an increase in the speed of execution of commands, and the speed and bandwidth of this version are 3 Gb/s and 300 MB/s, respectively.
Sata 3: In this version, in addition to minor changes in the queuing technique, the main difference between this version compared to the previous version is the data transfer speed, which is equal to 6 Gb/s, and the bandwidth is 600 MB/s.
Difference between SATA and IDE port
- The performance of both SATA and IDE ports are similar to each other, but in this section, we are going to explain the differences between SATA and IDE ports, which are:
- It is necessary to know that the IDE is an older version of the SATA port and that the SATA port is more straightforward, more convenient, and less complicated.
- IDE cables usually have 40 pins connected to 2 drives, while sata cables have seven pins and can only be connected to 1 movement. The IDE interface runs in parallel, but the sata interface runs serially (back to back), which is faster.
- Sata uses newer technologies and can transfer data at a higher speed. So that the data transfer speed in SATA is 150 Mbps, while the data transfer speed in IDE is only 33 MBps.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is meant by sata port?
The SATA port is used for data transfer, which connects data storage devices to the motherboard.
What does Sata stand for, and what does it mean?
sata port stands for Serial Advanced Technology Attachment and means advanced communication technology.
Name the SATA port versions.
SATA port versions are: sata 1, sata 2 and sata 3
