* Serial Advanced Technology Attachment
More speed at a lower cost. That’s what Serial Advanced Technology Attachment or SATA is all about.
This week’s Technology Update author (scleland@3ware.com) takes a look at the science behind SATA. Basically, SATA sets up point-to-point connections for attaching servers to internal or closely located storage. SATA consists of a controller, which fits in a PCI, PCI-X or PCI Express slot in the PC or server and attaches to ATA or SCSI drives.
According to our author, the configuration of storage devices using SATA is much simpler than its predecessor – Parallel ATA – thanks to its sleeker form factor. SATA uses longer, thinner cables than Parallel ATA, which are bulky, fragile and short. In addition, SATA uses a seven-pin data connector as opposed to the 40-pin found in Parallel ATA. SATA’s cables are much simpler to route and install, and the compact nature provides additional space on motherboards and disk drives. SATA also uses low-voltage differential signaling, which is consistent with low power and cooling requirements, our author states.
And just about everyone in the storage game – from Fujitsu, Seagate and Maxtor to IBM, Dell and HP – supports SATA. In fact Gartner expects the number of ATA/SATA drives to exceed 9.2 million by 2006.
For more on this topic see: https://www.nwfusion.com/news/tech/2003/0825techupdate.html
