Serial ATA Technology - FAQ
- General SATA Questions
- Serial ATA II Questions
- Transition from 3.5" to 2.5" Form Factor
- More Information
General SATA Questions
Q: What is Serial ATA (SATA)?
A: Serial ATA is an evolutionary interface for the high-speed transfer of data in PCs, workstations, and laptops. Rather than
communicate 16 bits at a time over a parallel bus, Serial ATA sends one bit over a serial cable at a much higher frequency
than currently possible achieving higher transfer rates.
Q: How has Fujitsu led the way with Serial ATA?
A: In early 2004, Fujitsu was the first company to offer Serial ATA on a 2.5" hard drive. Fujitsu was also one of the first
disk drive companies to commit to Serial ATA and the first to demonstrate full compliance to the specification. In addition,
Fujitsu is a contributor to the Serial ATA Working Group leading the effort in marketing and creating the spec for SATA. Fujitsu
continues to be a leading supplier for SATA Hard Disk Drives (HDD).
Q: What applications are best suited for 2.5" Serial ATA drives?
A: Beyond the traditional laptop PC, 2.5" SATA drives are particularly well suited for array and RAID applications, blade
servers, and other near-line storage opportunities. SATA HDDs can be installed in SAS backend storage systems. SATA HDD connectors
are compatible to plug into SAS backplanes. This helps IT managers choose between performance (SAS) or capacity (SATA).
2.5” SATA hard disk drives are also ideal for PVR and Set-Top-Box systems in home entertainment systems.
Q: What performance improvements can I expect from Serial ATA?
A: In its initial implementations in 2004, Serial ATA offered 1.5Gb/sec (150MB/sec). 3Gb/sec (300MB/sec) has been the dominant
SATA interface speed for the past couple years. 6Gb/sec (600MB/sec) is now being finalized as a specification and will be
implemented on Desktop PC systems 1st, then followed by Notebook systems in the next few years. Native Command Queuing is
also available with SATA which helps with performance.
Q: Where do you expect Serial ATA to play in the networked storage space?
A: Serial ATA has completely replaced parallel ATA in the networked storage space. It is also used in conjunction with Serial
Attached SCSI (SAS) HDDs for back-end storage requirements.
Serial ATA II Questions
Q: What is Serial ATA II?
A: Serial ATA II is the current version of the Serial ATA specification. It provides additional enhancements to Serial ATA
for the cost-sensitive server and networked storage market segments as well as faster signaling speed for all segments.
Q: Is Serial ATA II backward compatible with Serial ATA 1.0?
A: Yes, they are fully compatible. Serial ATA II drives are backward compatible with Serial ATA 1.0 hosts, and also run on today's
operating systems. Serial ATA 1.0 drives also work with Serial ATA II hosts.
Transition from 3.5" to 2.5" Form Factor
Q: What benefits are there to using 2.5" hard disk drives versus 3.5" hard disk drives?
A: The physical size and lower power dissipation of 2.5" drives allows up to four drives to be installed in the same physical
space where one 3.5" drive would be. This allows greatly increased performance and data security options that can only be
achieved with multiple drives. 2.5" drives are also designed to be quieter, which is appreciated in an office or home environment.
With Fujitsu's leading technology, the capacity of 2.5" drives will meet all but the most demanding applications.
More Information
Q: Where can I find more information on Fujitsu hard disk drive technology?
A: More information about Fujitsu hard disk drives can be found at us.fujitsu.com/hdd.
Q: How can I get more information on Serial ATA? What other companies support the move to SATA?
A: More information can be found at www.sata-io.org. In addition, this site includes a list of supporting companies.
