SATA: what is it?

Whether hard drives or transmission lines, SATA can be found in ever more different areas. You can find out exactly what this is in this practical tip.

SATA - what is it?

The abbreviation SATA stands for "Serial Advanced Technology Attachment" and is a transfer technology for hard drives and removable storage drives. Signal lines running in parallel were switched to serial operation some time ago in order to increase the data transmission rate. The first version of SATA was launched in 2001.

• Further development to P-ATA: Serial ATA is downward compatible to parallel ATA and thus represents a further development of the outdated transmission technology P-ATA. The new interface improves the cabling and ensures a higher transmission rate.
• SATA cable: You can replace the 40 or 80-pin ATA cable with a thin, 8 mm wide, 7-pin cable. Some SATA cables have identical plug connections. It doesn't matter whether you put the plug on the hard disk or on the main board. However, you should place curved plugs on the hard disk. SATA cables are up to one meter long.
• SATA hard drives: IDE hard drives are a thing of the past. The modern SATA hard drives are easier to install and offer much more space due to their thin cables. The data transfer from the hard disk to the PC is faster than with the outdated IDE hard disks.
• The future: But SATA hard drives are no longer the best you can find on the current market. The so-called solid state disks are even more robust and faster. You can find out what these can do and which are the cheapest in our SSD leaderboard.

Read the difference between SATA and eSATA in the next practical tip.