SATA was announced in 2000 in order to provide several advantages over the earlier PATA interface such as reduced cable size and cost (seven conductors instead of 40 or 80), … See more

SATA revisions are typically designated with a dash followed by Roman numerals, e.g. "SATA-III", to avoid confusion with the speed, which is … See more

Connectors and cables present the most visible differences between SATA and parallel ATA drives. Unlike PATA, the same connectors are used on 3.5-inch SATA hard disks (for desktop and server computers) and 2.5-inch disks (for portable or small computers). See more

SATA and PATA
At the hardware interface level, SATA and PATA (Parallel AT Attachment) devices are completely incompatible: they cannot be interconnected … See more

Hot plug
The Serial ATA spec requires SATA devices be capable of hot plugging; that is, devices that meet the specification are capable of insertion or removal of a device into or from a backplane connector (combined signal … See more

SATA uses a point-to-point architecture. The physical connection between a controller and a storage device is not shared among other controllers and storage devices. SATA defines multipliers, which allows a single SATA controller port to drive up to fifteen … See more

SATA and SCSI
Parallel SCSI uses a more complex bus than SATA, usually resulting in higher manufacturing costs. … See more