SATA

Technology & Computing abbreviation · Computer Hardware

SATA
Stands forSerial ATA
CategoriesTechnology & Computing

SATA stands for Serial ATA, a computer hardware abbreviation.

Interface for connecting hard drives, SSDs and optical drives to a motherboard with thin 7-pin data cables and a separate 15-pin power connector. SATA III, the current version, runs at 6 Gbit/s, about 550 MB/s in practice.

Example: The motherboard has six SATA ports, enough for the SSD, two hard drives and a Blu-ray burner.

Usage notes

SATA replaced the wide ribbon cables of Parallel ATA from 2003; the trade group SATA-IO maintains it. Its revisions run at 1.5, 3 and 6 Gbit/s, and no faster version is planned because NVMe took over high-performance storage. Pronounced "SAY-tuh" or "SAT-uh". Drives connect hot-swappably in servers and NAS units that support it.

More computer hardware abbreviations

  • RAM – Random-access memory
  • RISC – Reduced instruction set computer
  • RISC-V – RISC-V (open instruction set architecture)
  • ROM – Read-only memory
  • RU – Rack unit
  • SAS – Serial Attached SCSI
  • SBC – Single-board computer
  • SCSI – Small Computer System Interface
  • SD – Secure Digital
  • SDHC – Secure Digital High Capacity
  • SDRAM – Synchronous dynamic random-access memory
  • SDXC – Secure Digital eXtended Capacity

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