Nik Simpson
Guest
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 Posted:
Tue Nov 16, 2004 7:38 pm Post subject:
Re: Disk Technologies ATA, SATA & SAS |
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Shivakanth Mundru wrote:
| Quote: | Can some one point me to a good resource that point out the
differences amonng the disk technologies?
(or)
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ATA is basically the same spec that has been used for PC disk drives since
the 80s when it started out as IDE. Over that time its gone through a number
of evolutions to improve performance and support bigger drives. The ATA
interface is a parralel I/F, i.e. you have a wide ribbon cable with 40 wires
with data & commands transmitted as a set of synchronized bits over the
wires in the I/F.
SATA is a further evolution of the ATA spec and changes the interface from
the clunky old ribbon cable with 40 wires in parralel to a serial interface
where a 32 bit word would be transmitted as a sequence of bits down a single
connector. There are lots of reasons for changing from the old parralel I/F
to a serial I/F including:
1. Higher speeds, a serial interface can run at much higher bitrates than a
parralel interface (for a given price)
2. Smaller cables make the problem of cable routing much easier in modern
cases
3. Smaller cables don't obstruct airflow which improves cooling and/or
reduces noise (smaller fans etc.)
SAS roughly the same relation to SCSI as SATA has to ATA, i.e. its a serial
interface replacement for the current SCSI standard which is parralel, the
reasons for doing it are roughly the same.
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Nik Simpson |
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