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About SATA Hard Drives

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By Josienita Borlongan
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About SATA Hard Drives

SATA stands for Serial Advanced Technology Attachment, a device in the computer motherboard. SATA, which uses a serial connection, replaces the older and slower parallel ATA (Advanced Technology Attachment) also known as PATA (Parallel Advanced technology Attachment). SATA utilizes thinner cables; it cools more effectively while running more reliably than ATA.

    Function

  1. Hard Disk Drive
    Hard Disk Drive
     The primary function of a SATA is to perform transmission of data in serial mode, one bit per time. It transfers data between the motherboard and other devices that provide mass storage, such as a hard drive, CD-ROM drives, and other components, such as RAM (Random Access Memory) and CPU (Central Processing Unit) of a computer. SATA supports all ATA and ATAPI (Advanced Technology Attachment with Packet Interface).

    2. Types

  2. There are different types of a Serial ATA: SATA 1.5Gb/s, SATA 3Gb/s, SATA 6Gb/s. SATA 1.5Gb/s, also known as, SATA/150 or SATA I, provides a transfer rate of 1.5 gigabits per second. The second type is SATA 3Gb/s or SATA/300, which provides a transfer rate of 3 gigabits per second. Another name for SATA 3Gb/s is SATA 2 or SATA II, which used to be the name of the SATA-IO (Serial ATA International Organization), a committee that defines the standards. The newest type of SATA is the SATA 6Gb/s or the SATA/600, which provides a transfer rate of 6 gigabits per second. The SATA 6Gb/s doubles the maximum throughput of the SATA300, which also benefits the flash read speeds.

    3. Features

  3. SATA cable
    SATA cable
     A SATA is a serial link or a single cable that has a minimum of four wires. SATA comes with flat cables compared to the older PATA, which has bulkier cables. A SATA cable can extend up to 1 meter long, while the PATA cable can only extend up to 40 centimeters long.

    4. Considerations

  4. When deciding on which SATA type to use, one would need to take into consideration the minimum requirements of utilization and transfer rates. For a personal computer, a SATA I would suffice, however, for enterprise-wide use the higher the transfer rates, provided by SATA II and SATA/600, the more efficient and reliable is the outcome.

    5. Prevention/Solution

  5. Redundancy, efficiency and speed are important for enterprise environments; that is why utilizing a SATA over an ATA is essential. The port selectors of a SATA II can allow two host connections on one drive, thereby providing redundancy. When one port or host fails, the spare one can pick up or take over the functions of the primary host, keeping the storage available for connections. Using NCQ (Native Command Queuing) improves the overall performance of a SATA II. The NCQ will provide the SATA II drive the algorithm to help improve performance by determining the best way and order to execute the commands.
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