Hard Drive - SATA

SATA stands for serial advanced technology attachment which was the replacement for the previous interface parallel ATA (PATA). All these technologies are developed by the Serial ATA International Organization. SATA interfaces are significantly faster than the PATA interface which is attributed to the increased data rate on the serial paired lines. SATA has backward compatibility with the ATA/ATAPI command set that was previously used in PATA.

The SATA technology is implemented in two key areas which are in the connectors and the SATA cable. The SATA connectors can be found on compatible motherboards and hard drives. Some people have confused SATA for a storage drive which it isn't. Rather, a SATA HDD is simply a storage drive with SATA connectors.

The SATA interface is built with two conductors for sending data and two conductors for retrieving data and is interspersed with a ground cable to prevent interference. Lastly, the interface has a power cable to provide power for the storage drive function.

SATA has gone through a number of revisions since 2003. Every version of the SATA drive has seen improvements to the technology to improve speed and performance. SATA-I, also denoted as Serial ATA-150 or SATA 1.0, released in 2003 provides 1.5Gbps and 150 MB/s. SATA-II was released in 2004 with a transfer rate of 3.0 Gbps and 300 MB/s and introduced native command queuing (NCQ). It is alternatively referred to as Serial ATA-300 or SATA 2.0 and is backward compatible with SATA-I. The most recent revision is the SATA-III which has transfer speeds of 6 Gbps and 600 MB/s. SATA revision 3.0 is also denoted as Serial ATA-600 and is backward compatible with the two previous versions. SATA-III supports SAS compatibility, isochronous native command queuing (NCQ) for streaming functions, and improved power management. SATA-III has gone through revisions 3.1, 3.2, 3.3, 3.4, and the most recent SATA 3.5 released this July.

We are continuously seeing more and more use of SATA technology outside of the PC world such as in consumer electronics, the auto industry, and many other technological devices. SATA is the critical technology that supports hard drive disks and SSDs that are edging the multi-terabyte range.

SATA hard disk will be your best choice if your priorities are storage capacity. The following are attributes of SATA that make it ideal for your storage applications:

Read/Write Speeds: SATA HDDs have commendable read/write speeds ideal for storing information that is not required on a regular basis. Generally, hard disk drive SATA has better write speeds compared to read speeds which makes it ideal for transferring data into the drive rather than transferring data out of the storage drive. SATA technology is best suited for storing large amounts of data that isn't accessed regularly.

Storage Capacity: SATA drives have very large storage capacities compared to SAS drives. We have the 2.5-inch form factor common in portable laptops but still provide large storage.

Price: SATA drives offer the best value per GB of storage capacity. They are cheaper compared to SAS drives which may be four times more expensive for similar storage capacity.

Higher Bandwidth: The higher bandwidth of SATA hard drives supports greater speeds that enhance performance.

Manageable Connections: The SATA interface works with fewer and thinner cables that are really helpful in allowing better airflow inside the cabinet.

Flexibility: Compared to PATA, SATA cables are longer and offer more flexibility when assembling your system.

Hot Plugging: SATA allows for the removal of drives from a PC or server while it is still running – no need to perform a shutdown.

Lower Power Consumption: SATA is more energy-efficient and is the reason it is widely used in smaller portable computers.

Native Command Queuing: SATA supports native command queuing which means a hard drive disk can accept as many as 32 commands. NCQ allows the reordering of commands so that an efficient access pattern is created to minimize head movement. Applications that issue numerous asynchronous commands to the disk will benefit immensely from NCQ.

Talk to any of our experts to find the best SATA technology best suited for your equipment needs and scalability in the future. We have a wide range of SATA hard drives including 2TB-5.4K RPM, 2TB-7.2K RPM, 3TB-7.2K RPM, 2TB-5.9K RPM, SATA connectors, SATA adapters and SATA cables to meet your specific needs.