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SATA cable

Today, computers are routinely used both at work and in the home. Typically, each host computer has a storage media such as a disk drive. A hard drive is connected to the computer by way of an interface, usually a controller card, a cable, and some software protocols. The disk drive is typically connected to the host computer via a cable and a cable connector that connects to a device connector of the disk drive. For compatibility, the connectors and interface protocol are standardized. Accordingly, the cable, cable connector, and device connector should comply with the same interface standard. One type of hard drive interface used today is an integrated drive electronics (IDE) interface. This is also known as an advanced technology attachment (ATA) interface. ATA is the actual interface specification for the IDE standard. The IDE/ATA standard is a parallel interface whereby multiple bits of data are transmitted at one time across the interface simultaneously during each transfer. A parallel interface allows for high throughput, however, as the frequency of the interface is increased, signaling problems and interference between signals become common. Parallel ATA allows up to two devices to be connected to a single port using a master/slave communication technique. One ATA device is configured as a master and the other slave. Both devices are daisy-chained together via one ribbon cable that is an unterminated multidrop bus. This bus or connection is typically referred to as a parallel channel. As demand for higher transfer and storage bandwidths increases, the parallel ATA is nearing its performance limit. For this reason, serial ATA (SATA) was developed as a next generation ATA specification. Serial ATA is a computer bus primarily designed for transfer of data between a computer processor and hard disk and has at least three advantages over Parallel ATA, namely speed, cable management, and Serial ATA's ability of being hot swappable. Serial ATA may combine software transparency, low cost, scalability, and design flexibility to overcome the limitations of parallel ATA. Point-to-point data rates of 1.5 Gbps may be attainable with Serial ATA. SATA connects each of the two drives with individual cables in a point-to-point fashion. Software drivers for parallel ATA have to be modified to accommodate serial ATA. To support Serial ATA communications, a power supply cable typically runs from a power controller of the host to the device to carry power supply and ground signals from the power supply to the device. Additionally, a separate SATA communications cable typically runs from a controller or concentrator of the host the device to carry information between the host and the device. The Serial ATA cable generally includes seven lines: two transmit lines for carrying a differential mode transmit signal, two receive lines for carrying a differential mode receive signal, and three ground lines.

SATA cable product listings

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