2 ATA interfaces that are used to connect to mass storage devices (e.g. drives):
- Parallel ATA (PATA) - obsolete in favor of SATA
- Serial ATA (SATA) - uses Advance Host Controller Interface (AHCI) as a communication interface between software & SATA devices
SATA Versions
|
Interface |
Date |
Speed |
Bandwidth |
Backward Compatible |
Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
SATA Revision 1.0 |
2003 |
1.5Gb/s |
150MB/s |
N/A | |
|
SATA Revision 2.0 |
2004 |
3Gb/s |
300MB/s |
SATA I | |
|
SATA Revision 3.0 |
2008 |
6Gb/s |
600MB/s |
SATA I and SATA II | |
|
SATA Express (SATAe) Revision 3.2 |
2013 |
16Gb/s |
1600MB/s |
uses 2 PCIe |
Example
A drive that supports a SATA III interface, when connected to a SATA III port, can reach up to:
- 550MB/s sequential read rate
- 520MB/s sequential write rate
However, when the same drive is connected to a SATA II port, it can only reach up to:
- 285MB/s sequential read rate
- 275MB/s sequential write rate