Serial ATA (SATA, abbreviated from Serial AT Attachment)[2] is a computer bus interface that connects host bus adapters to mass storage devices such as hard disk drives, optical drives, and solid-state drives. Serial ATA succeeded the older Parallel ATA (PATA) standard,[a] offering several advantages over the older interface: reduced cable size and cost (seven conductors instead of 40 or 80), native hot swapping, faster data transfer through higher signaling rates, and more efficient transfer through an (optional) I/O queuing protocol. Although, a number of hot plug PATA offering were first invented and marketed by Core International beginning in the late 1980s for the Micro Channel architecture bus controllers.
In summary, Serial ATA is a better, more efficient interface than the dated PATA standard. If you are looking to buy a computer that will support fast hard drives for years to come, make sure it comes with a SATA interface.
Difference between SATA & PATA:SATA (Serial ATA) and PATA (Parallel ATA) are two interfaces that are used to connect to mass storage devices like hard drives and optical drives. SATA is the successor to PATA, which has now become obsolete.
There are several factors that made SATA far superior to PATA and the biggest one is speed. The maximum speed of PATA is 133MB/s. In comparison, the first and slowest version of SATA is capable of achieving a transfer rate of 150MB/s, while the third revision is capable of four times that at 600MB/s. Not all hard drives are capable of taking advantage of the speed as mechanical drives are relatively slow. Solid State Drives (SSD) are more able to use SATA as it does not have the same limitation. SATA does give a slight advantage to mechanical hard drives by way of NCQ. This feature rearranges the order of requests so that all the positions on the platters can be reached with the least amount of passes.
Another major difference between the two is the cables that they use. PATA uses the very recognizable wide ribbon while SATA uses cables that are just over a centimeter wide. PATA cables were a nightmare to manage and it blocks airflow inside the case. The smaller cables of SATA make it a breeze to tuck into sides or corners. PATA cables allow two drives to be attached to the same cable via a master/slave arrangement. This is somewhat confusing to some people as jumpers are employed so that the drive knows whether it is a master or a slave. SATA abandons the master/slave arrangement and each cable can attach to a single drive.
