Serial ATA
From Wikipedia, a free encyclopedia written in simple English for easy reading.
Serial ATA (or SATA) is a way of connecting a hard drive to a computer. It is a replacement for what is now called PATA. PATA used to be called ATA, before SATA was introduced.
SATA's most important difference from PATA is that it uses a thinner cable to connect the hard drive to the computer.
PATA is still used more often than SATA. The P in PATA stands for "parallel", and is seen in the many wires running in the same direction, in the ribbon cable it uses to connect the hard drive.
There are many differences between Serial ATA and Parallel ATA. In theory, SATA is faster than PATA. However, the burst speeds (150MB/s, 300 MB/s) that vendors advertise are rarely achieved. Other benefits are the much easier handling of the new cable type. Some drives can also be connected and disconnected while the computer is runnung. This is called hot swapping. Finally, some drives support a technology called Native Command Queueing. This means that the drive can rearrange the commands it gets to get a better performance.
The two also have different connections and different motherboard types.
This short article can be made longer. You can help Wikipedia by adding to it.
