Good day! In the last post, we looked at the hard drive structure in detail, but I didn’t specifically say anything about interfaces - that is, the ways of interaction between the hard drive and other computer devices, or more specifically, the ways of interaction (connection) between the hard drive and the motherboard of the PC.

Why didn't you say so? But because this topic is worthy of no less than an entire post. So now we will analyze in detail the most popular interfaces today. I’ll immediately make a reservation that the entry or post (whichever is more convenient for you) in this time will have impressive dimensions, but unfortunately there is no way to go without it, because if you write briefly, it will not be entirely clear.

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PC hard drive interface concept

First, let's define the concept of “interface”. Speaking in simple language(namely, I will express myself to them as much as possible, since the blog is on ordinary people designed for people like you and me), interface is the way devices interact with each other and not only devices. For example, many of you must have heard about the so-called “friendly” interface of a program. What does it mean? This means that the interaction between a person and a program is easier and does not require the user to great effort, compared to the “not friendly” interface. In our case, the interface is simply a way of interaction between the hard drive and the computer’s motherboard. It is a set of special lines and a special protocol (a set of data transfer rules). That is, purely physically - a cable (cable, wire), on both sides of which there are inputs, and on the hard drive and motherboard there are special ports (places where the cable is connected). Thus, the concept of interface includes a connecting cable and ports located on the devices it connects.

Types of interaction between screws and the computer’s motherboard (types of interfaces)

Well, first in line we will have the most “ancient” (80s) of all, in modern HDDs You won’t find it anymore, it’s an IDE interface (aka ATA, PATA).

IDE

IDE - translated from English as “Integrated Drive Electronics”, which literally means “built-in controller”. It was only later that IDE began to be called an interface for data transfer, due to the fact that the controller (located in the device, mainly in hard drives And optical drives) and had to be connected with something. It (IDE) is also called ATA (Advanced Technology Attachment), it turns out something like “Advanced Connection Technology”. The fact is that ATA is a parallel data transfer interface, for which soon (literally immediately after the release of SATA, about which we'll talk just below) it was renamed PATA (Parallel ATA).

What can I say, although the IDE was very slow ( throughput data transmission channel ranged from 100 to 133 megabytes per second per different versions IDE - and even then purely theoretically, in practice much less), but it allowed you to connect two devices to the motherboard at once, using one cable.

Moreover, in the case of connecting 2 devices at once, the line capacity was divided in half. But this is far from the only drawback of the IDE. The wire itself, as can be seen from the figure, is quite wide and, when connected, will take up the lion's share free space V system unit, which will negatively affect the cooling of the whole. In general, IDE is already outdated morally and physically; for this reason, the IDE connector can no longer be found on many modern motherboards, although until recently they were still installed (in the amount of 1 piece) on budget motherboards and on some boards in the mid-price segment.

SATA

The next interface, no less popular than IDE in its time, is SATA ( Serial ATA), characteristic feature which is serial data transmission. It is worth noting that at the time of writing this post it is the most widespread for use in computers.

There are three main variants (revisions) of SATA, differing from each other in throughput: rev. 1 (SATA I) - 150 Mb/s, rev. 2 (SATA II) - 300 Mb/s, rev. three (SATA III) - 600 Mb/s. But this is only in theory. In practice, the write/read speed of screws generally does not exceed 100-150 MB/s, and the remaining speed is not yet in demand and only affects the speed of interaction between the controller and the HDD cache memory (increases the disk access speed).

Among the innovations I would like to note - backwards compatible all versions of SATA (a disk with a SATA rev. 2 connector can be connected to a motherboard with a SATA rev. three connector, etc.), improved appearance and ease of connecting/disconnecting the cable, increased cable length compared to IDE (1 meter maximum, versus 46 cm on the IDE interface), support for the NCQ function starting from the first revision. I hasten to please owners of old devices that do not support SATA - there are adapters from PATA to SATA, this is a real way out of the situation, allowing you to avoid wasting money on buying a new motherboard or new hard disk.

Also, unlike PATA, the SATA interface provides for “hot-swappable” hard drives, which means that when the computer’s system unit is powered on, you can attach/detach hard drives. Only to implement it you will need to delve a little into the BIOS settings and enable AHCI mode.

eSATA (External SATA)

The next one on the list is eSATA (External SATA) - was created in 2004, the word “external” indicates that it is used for connecting external hard disks. Supports hot-swap disks. The length of the interface cable is increased compared to SATA - maximum length amounts to this moment as much as two meters. eSATA is not physically compatible with SATA, but has the same bandwidth.

But eSATA is far from the only way to connect external devices to a computer. For example, FireWire is a high-speed serial interface for connecting external devices, including HDD.

Supports hot-swappable screws. In terms of bandwidth it is comparable to USB 2.0, and with the advent of USB 3.0 it even loses in speed. However, it still has the advantage that FireWire can provide isochronous data transmission, which facilitates its use in digital video, as it makes it possible to transmit data in real time. Sure, FireWire is popular, but not as popular as example USB or eSATA. It is used quite rarely to connect screws; in most cases, various multimedia devices are connected using FireWire.

USB (Universal Serial Bus)

USB (Universal Serial Bus) is perhaps the most common interface used to connect external hard drives, flash drives and solid-state drives (SSD). As in the previous case, there is support for “hot swap”; the maximum length of the connecting cable is quite large - up to 5 meters in case USB usage 2.0, and up to three meters - if USB 3.0 is used. You can probably make the cable longer, but in this case stable work devices will be in question.

Transmission speed USB data 2.0 is about 40 Mb/s, which is generally a low figure. Yes, of course, for an ordinary daily work with files, a channel bandwidth of 40 Mb/s is enough for the eyes, but as soon as we talk about working with large files, you will inevitably begin to look towards something faster. But it turns out there is a way out, and its name is USB 3.0, the bandwidth of which, compared to its predecessor, has increased 10 times and is about 380 Mb/s, that is, almost the same as SATA II, even a little more.

There are two types of USB cable pins, type "A" and type "B", located on opposite ends of the cable. Type "A" - controller ( motherboard), type “B” - connected device.

USB 3.0 (Type "A") is compatible with USB 2.0 (Type "A"). Types "B" are not compatible with each other, as can be seen from the figure.

Thunderbolt (Light Peak)

Thunderbolt (Light Peak). In 2010 by Intel the first computer with this interface was demonstrated, and a little later, the no less famous Apple company. Thunderbolt is pretty cool (how could it be otherwise, Apple knows what is worth investing in), is it worth talking about its support for such features as: the notorious “hot swap”, immediate connection to several devices at once, truly “huge” data transfer speed (20 times faster than USB 2.0).

The maximum cable length is only three meters (apparently more is not necessary). However, despite all the listed advantages, Thunderbolt is not yet “massive” and is used mainly in expensive devices.

Go ahead. Next up we have a couple of interfaces that are very similar to each other - SAS and SCSI. Their similarity lies in the fact that they are both used primarily in servers where high performance and the shortest possible access time are required. hard drive. But there is also back side medals - all the advantages of these interfaces are compensated by the price of devices that support them. Hard drives that support SCSI or SAS are much more expensive.

SCSI (Small Computer System Interface)

SCSI (Small Computer System Interface) is a parallel interface for connecting various external devices (not only hard drives).

It was developed and standardized even somewhat earlier than the first version of SATA. The latest versions of SCSI have hot-swap support.

SAS (Serial Attached SCSI)

SAS (Serial Attached SCSI), which replaced SCSI, was supposed to solve a number of the latter's shortcomings. And I must say - he succeeded. The fact is that, due to its “parallelism,” SCSI used a common bus, so only one of the devices could work with the controller at once; SAS does not have this drawback.

In addition, it is backward compatible with SATA, which is undoubtedly a big plus. Unfortunately the price of screws is SAS interface is close to the cost of SCSI hard drives, but there is no way to get rid of this; you have to pay for the speed.

NAS (Network Attached Storage)

If you are not tired yet, I suggest you consider another cool way to connect an HDD - NAS (Network Attached Storage). Currently network systems storage systems (NAS) are very popular. Essentially, this is a separate computer, a kind of mini-server, responsible for storing data. It connects to another PC via network cable and is controlled from another computer through a regular browser. All this is necessary in cases where great disk space, which is used by several people at once (in the family, at work). Data from network storage are transmitted to users’ scribes either via a regular cable (Ethernet), or when Wi-Fi assistance. In my opinion, a very convenient thing.

I hope you liked the material, I suggest you bookmark the blog so you don’t miss anything and we’ll meet you in the next posts on the site.

At the time of buying hard drive Various ambiguities may arise regarding any parameters. Quite often, users get confused about the interfaces of hard drives, although there are essentially only two main interfaces - IDE and SATA.

In this article we will try to thoroughly understand this important parameter, and also consider in detail each of the most popular interfaces. Also, let’s not ignore the morally and physically outdated (as of 2014) IDE interface in order to bury it completely.

So, first you need to understand the concept of an interface, specifically in the context of hard drives. Interface– this is a means of interaction, in the case of HDD, consisting of signal lines, an interface controller and a special protocol (set of rules). As you know, we insert one end of the interface cable (be it IDE or SATA) into the connector on the HDD, and the other end into the connector on the motherboard.

Now let's go through each of the most popular interfaces, but let's start with the older one, which has long since fallen out of mass use, but is still present in a number of legacy systems.

IDE (ATA) interface

IDE - Integrated Drive Electronics (electronics that are built into the drive). It is also called PATA.

As mentioned above, this interface is very outdated. It was developed back in 1986. Much to talk about of this interface and we will not specify its specifications. We note the fact that it has a rather low data transfer rate compared to SATA. IDE is used only in very old systems whose motherboards do not support SATA interface, or in the case where an IDE disk is available. Figure 1 shows the IDE cable, and the corresponding connector on the motherboard is shown in (Figure 2).

Fig.1

Fig.2

When purchasing a new hard drive, you need to familiarize yourself with the interfaces that your motherboard supports ( motherboard selection). The newest motherboards are often released without IDE connectors, but you can still find quite a few models that support both IDE and SATA interfaces. Again, if you have a SATA interface, it is better to purchase a corresponding drive with this interface than to go back in time and buy an IDE drive (in the case of motherboards that support both standards).

Interfaces SATA, SATA 2(II), SATA 3 (III)

In 2002 the first hard disks, with a progressive interface for that time SATA. Maximum speed the data transfer rate of which was 150 MB/s.

If we talk about the advantages, the first thing that catches your eye is the replacement 80-wire loop(Fig. 1), to a seven-core SATA cable (Fig. 3), which is much more resistant to interference, which made it possible to increase the standard cable length from 46 cm to 1 m. Also, appropriate SATA connectors(Fig. 4), which are several times more compact than the connectors of the previous IDE standard. This made it possible to place more connectors on the motherboard; now on new motherboards you can find more than 6 SATA connectors, versus traditional 2-3 IDEs in older motherboards oriented to this standard.

Fig.3

Fig.4

Then, the SATA II standard appeared, the data transfer speed reached 300 MB/s. This standard has acquired many advantages, among them: Native Command Queuing technology (it is this technology that made it possible to achieve a speed of 300 MB/s), hot-plugging disks, executing several commands in one transaction, and others.

Well, in 2009 the interface was introduced SATA 3. This standard provides for data transfer at speeds 600 MB/s(for hard drives, “oh” how redundant).

Interface improvements can include more efficient power management and, of course, increased speed.

It should be noted that SATA, SATA II and SATA III are completely compatible, which is very practical due to many upgrades various components systems. Also, I would like to draw attention to the fact that the SATA interface is used by SSD drives and DVD/CD drives. It will be very useful for fast SSD drives, high speeds SATA interface.

As a small summary of this article, I will say once again that when choosing a hard drive(specifically the interface), you need to pay attention to which standard your motherboard supports. In the light modern trends– this will most likely be one of the SATA standards. And for old motherboards and hard drives, the IDE standard always remains.

Now, doubts about which interface to choose: IDE or SATA should disappear. Good luck!

P.S. We looked at the most popular interfaces; there are many more specific ones. For example, removable hard drives use the standard eSATA etc.

27. 05.2017

Blog of Dmitry Vassiyarov.

SATA connector - features and characteristics of the interface

Good day, dear friends.

Do you often come across the phrase “SATA interface”, your friends talk about it, but you have no idea what it is? Then you should read this article, from which you will not only get an answer to this question, but also learn to understand the generations of connectors of this family.

Debriefing

Let's start with what the interface is. It is a means of interaction between two devices; V in this case between motherboard and hard drive. It consists of a controller, signal lines and a special protocol - the rules by which this particular type of interface works. To make it clearer, physically it is a connector on the motherboard where the HDD is inserted.

SATA to English language stands for Serial Advanced Technology Attachment, which translates to “ consistent application latest technologies" The first word in this case plays key role, since it is this that determines the type of this interface - it is sequential.

This means that data is transferred bit by bit - one at a time - over a certain period of time. I am not focusing on this by chance, because the predecessor of SATA is PATA (IDE) - a parallel interface that transmitted information several bits at once. It is currently considered obsolete and is therefore not used.

Development of the sat started in 2000 by leading companies in the computer market of that time and today, including Dell, Seagate, Maxtor, APT Technologies, Quantum, etc. They began to integrate the connector into boards everywhere in 2003.

Advantages

SATA is considered better than PATA in that it transmits information faster and has a thinner wire. Another plus - reduced operating voltage due to the reduced number of contacts and chips, therefore the controllers generate less heat, therefore do not overheat and last longer.

Judge for yourself, SATA has 7 pins, while PATA had 40. Also, the improved shape of the cable makes it resistant to multiple connections.

In addition, the outdated interface involved connecting 2 devices to one cable, while the modern one has separate wires for each gadget. Thus, all devices can operate simultaneously, delays in data transmission are eliminated and possible problems when assembling components.

Types of SATA

To work with any SATA interface, 2 cables are used: 7 pins for information exchange and 15 pins for connecting power. Instead of the latter, a 4-pin Molex connector can be used. The power cable supplies voltages of 5 and 12 V. The width of the wire is 2.4 cm.

The differences between the types are the data transfer speed and bus frequency. Let's look at the existing generations:

• SATA. The model that came out first. Now it is practically not used. Its bus operated at a frequency of 1.5 GHz, which is why the throughput did not exceed 150 Mb/s.
• SATA 2. The interface first appeared in 2004 on the nForce 4 chipset of the NVIDIA brand. Externally: the same as the previous option. The frequency has been increased to 3 GHz, thereby increasing the speed of information exchange to 300 Mb/s.
• SATA 3. Release took place in 2008. Traditionally, performance has doubled (600 MB/s). Compatibility between devices designed for previous generations has been maintained.

After the release of this interface, 2 more modifications were released:

- 3.1 (2011). Among the innovations: Zero-power optical drive (does not consume energy in sleep mode), mSATA (connector for portable and solid-state hard drives, netbooks and mobile gadgets), Queued TRIM Command (increases the productivity of SSD drives), Hardware Control Features (performs host identification of device capabilities). Data is transferred at the same speed as in the 3rd generation.

- 3.2 - SATA Express (2013). There has been a merger of this family and PCIe, that is, the interface software Compatible with SATA, but the carrier connector is considered PCIe.

Physically this model designed as two adjacent SATA ports, so you can simultaneously connect devices designed for interfaces of previous generations and directly for Express. The data transfer speed has increased significantly: up to 8 Gb/s if 1 connector is used, and up to 16 Gb/s if both are used.

eSATA

This type of interface is worth highlighting separate group, because it is intended for connecting devices from the outside. This is indicated by the first letter in the name, which carries the concept “External” (external). The connector appeared in 2004.

Compared to the first generation SATA:

• More reliable performance;
• The wire was extended from 1 m to 2 m;
• Are used different levels signal.

The disadvantage of this version is the need for special cable for connecting gadgets. The disadvantage was eliminated in the next modification - eSATAp - by introducing USB 2.0 technology, with information transmitted via wires with voltages of 5 and 12 V.

Determine the interface version.

How can you find out which SATA connector your motherboard and the devices connected to it have? There are several ways to do this:

• Read specifications your model in the instructions or on the official website.
• View the inscriptions directly on the motherboard.

• Use the CrystalDiskInfo utility. After installation, a window will open where you will be presented full information about your hardware.

Here is the website of this program: http://crystalmark.info/software/CrystalDiskInfo/index-e.html

If you are planning to buy a new screw, but the model you like does not match the connector on the motherboard, do not rush to abandon your choice, as special adapters are sold.

I look forward to seeing you on the pages of my blog again.

Hello friends, SATA hard drives differ in speed serial interface data exchange.

1. Not at all old interface SATA Revision 1.0 (up to 1.5 Gbit/s). Interface throughput - up to 150 MB/s

2. Relatively old, but still in use SATA Revision 2.0 (up to 3 Gbps). Interface throughput - up to 300 MB/s

3. The latest interface is SATA Revision 3.0 (up to 6 Gbps). Interface throughput is up to 600 MB/s.

You can also find such designations as SATA I, SATA II and SATA III.

Determining which SATA ports are on your motherboard is very simple.

Firstly, the official website of your motherboard contains the necessary information:

For example, my ASUS P8Z77-V PRO motherboard has:

2 x SATA 6Gb/s port(s), (Gray) - 2 SATA 6 Gb/s ports of gray color

4 x SATA 3Gb/s port(s), (Blue) - 4 SATA 3 Gb/s blue ports

2 x SATA 6Gb/s port(s), navy blue - 2 additional SATA 6 Gb/s ports, navy blue

Secondly, when connecting a regular hard drive or SSD of the new SATA 3.0 (6 Gb/s) interface to your motherboard, pay attention to the following information located on the motherboard. My maternal ASUS board P8Z77-V PRO and, according to the official website, it has four SATA 3 Gb/s ports and four SATA 6 Gb/s ports. Naturally, next to the connectors there is a corresponding marking; opposite the SATA 2.0 (3 Gbps) ports it says SATA 3G, and opposite the ports the latest interface SATA 3.0 (6 Gbit/s) is marked SATA 6G, which means we connect hard drives and solid-state drives according to the marking.

Left click to enlarge screenshot

What happens if you connect HDD wrong, for example SSD interface SATA 6 Gb/s to a SATA 3 Gb/s port on the motherboard? The answer is that it will work in SATA 3 Gbit/s and the speed solid state drive will be slightly lower, which is what happened to our reader (test results later in the article).

It is also important to use a native data cable with appropriate markings to connect a new hard drive or SSD to the SATA 6 Gb/s interface SATA 6 Gb/s!

Determine operating mode SATA hard disk or solid state SSD drive possible in the program CrystalDiskInfo

Let's go to the site

http://crystalmark.info/download/index-e.html

and download the utility CrystalDiskInfo, she will provide more than comprehensive information about all hard drives installed in your system unit or laptop.

The utility works without installation. Unzip and launch.

I have an SSD installed in the system unit Silicon Power V70 and in this window you can see all the comprehensive information about its operation.

As we see, currently SSD time operates in the highest information transfer mode SATA 3.0 (6 Gbit/s), interface throughput is up to 600 MB/s.

Current mode600 MB/s And supported mode600 MB/s.

If your system also has a hard drive installed, click on the arrow and information about the other drive will appear.

Friends, let's run a test of our SSD connected to high speed SATA port 3.0 (6 Gbps) SSD in the program AS SSD Benchmark , then connect it to the SATA 2.0 port (3 Gbit/s) and also conduct a test, then compare the result.

1. Sequential read and write test;

2. Test of random reading and writing of 4 KB blocks;

3. Test of random reading and writing of 4 KB blocks (queue depth = 64);

4. Read and write access time measurement test;

The final result, let's remember it.

In what mode will the hard drive or solid state drive operate?SSD latest interface SATA III ( 6 Gbit/s), if connected to the connector SATA II (3 Gbps)

Users often ask what SATA is and how it differs from ATA (IDE). In this article we will look at the SATA interface and all its key features.

SATA is an interface that is used to connect a variety of storage devices. For example, using SATA cables, drives and other devices for storing information are connected. The SATA cable is a red cable approximately 1 cm wide. Thanks to these features, it cannot be confused with other interfaces, such as ATA (IDE).

ATA (IDE) is an interface that was used for connecting hard drives, before the advent of the SATA interface. Unlike SATA, the ATA interface is a parallel interface. ATA (IDE) cable consists of 40 conductors, which is why it had greater width. Several such loops in the system unit significantly worsened the cooling efficiency, which was one of the problems of the ATA interface.

In addition to a thinner cable, the new SATA interface has other advantages over its predecessor. One of these advantages is the speed of information transfer.

The maximum information transfer speed on the ATA bus is 133 MByte/s, and this is a purely theoretical value. The introduction of the SATA interface did not bring a big increase in speed. The first version of the SATA 1.0 interface could transfer data at a speed of 150 MB/s. But subsequent versions of the interface were already much faster than fast version ATA interface (Ultra ATA (UDMA/133)). Thus, SATA 2.0 can transfer data at a speed of 300 MB/s, and SATA 3.0 as much as 600 MB/s.

Another advantage of SATA is its greater versatility compared to the old one. ATA interface(IDE). For example, using the SATA interface you can connect external devices. To simplify the connection of external devices, it was developed special version interface – eSATA (External SATA).

The eSATA interface has a hot-swappable mode, more reliable connectors and an increased cable length. Thanks to these improvements eSATA interface Convenient to use for connecting various external devices. To power connected eSATA devices, you must use a separate cable. In future versions of the interface it is planned to implement power directly into the eSATA cable.