What is a SATA interface?

SATA is the abbreviation for Serial ATA, Serial ATA. This is a new type of hard disk interface that is completely different from parallel ATA, and is named because it transmits data in a serial way. SATA bus using embedded clock signal, with a stronger ability to error correction, compared with the past, the biggest difference is that the transmission instructions (not just data) can be checked, if the error will be automatically corrected, which greatly improve the reliability of data transmission. The serial interface also has the advantages of simple structure and hot-swappable support.

SATA II was developed on the basis of SATA, and its main feature was that the external transmission rate was further increased from SATA 1.5Gbps (150mb/sec) to 3Gbps (300MB/SEC), in addition to NCQ (Native Command Queuing , native command queue), Port multiplier, staggered start (staggered spin-up) and a series of technical features.

The key technology of SATA II is the external transmission rate and NCQ technology of 3Gbps. NCQ technology can optimize the instruction execution order of the hard disk, avoid moving the head to read and write the hard disk in the same order as the traditional hard disk, and in contrast, it will sort it after receiving the command, and the head of the sort will be addressed in an efficient order. So as to avoid the loss caused by repeated movement of the head, prolong the hard life. In addition, not all SATA drives can use the NCQ technology, in addition to the hard disk itself to support NCQ, also requires motherboard chipset SATA Controller support NCQ

SATA drives typically need to install the driver provided by the motherboard chipset manufacturer when setting RAID mode, but there are also a few older SATA RAID controllers that are in the latest patches with some integrated SATA RAID-driven versions of Windows There is no need to load drivers in XP systems to build raid.

SATA is a lot more advantageous than parallel ATA and will be a cheap alternative to parallel ATA. And the full transition from Parallel ATA to SATA is a trend, it should be just a matter of time. Relevant manufacturers are also vigorously promote SATA interface, for example, Intel's ICH6 series of the South Bridge chip compared to the ICH5 series South Bridge Chip, the supported SATA interface from 2 to 4, while the parallel ATA interface from 2 to one, while the ICH7 series South Bridge further support 4 SATA II interface; The next-generation ICH8 series South Bridge will support 6 SATA II interfaces and will completely discard parallel ATA interfaces; Other motherboard chipset manufacturers have also started to support SATA II interfaces; The current SATA II interface hard drives are becoming mainstream; Other devices with SATA interfaces, such as SATA optical drives, have also appeared.

It is worth noting that, whether SATA or SATA II, in fact, the impact of hard disk performance is not small. Because the current bottleneck of hard disk performance is concentrated in the hard disk internal machinery and hard disk storage technology, disk speed determined by the internal data transmission rate of the hard disk, even the current top 15000-turn SCSI hard drive its internal data transfer rate is only 80mb/sec around, Not to mention the ordinary 7200-turn desktop-level hard drive. Unless the hard disk data recording technology has revolutionized, such as vertical recording technology, and so on, the current hard drive's internal data transmission rate is difficult to improve. It is not easy to say, the current hard drive with ATA 100 are fully enough, the reason for the adoption of more advanced interface technology, is to obtain a higher burst transmission rate, support more features, more user-friendly and more development potential

　　What's the use of SATA interfaces?

Because SATA hard disk it has a faster external interface transmission speed, the data calibration measures more perfect, SATA1.0 specification of the standard transmission rate can reach 150mb/s, so that you can give full play to the Serialata interface performance advantages, because the ATA100 theoretical value is 100mb/s, Even ATA133 is the highest 133mb/s. In addition, the SATA connector is very convenient to install first, and SATA is the most important feature is to support hot plug. Serial SATA way through better data verification, signal power down can effectively reduce all kinds of interference, so as to greatly improve the efficiency of data transmission, and the new SATA hard drive cable is also more conducive to the internal chassis cooling.