What is ATA(PATA)?

1 ATA (Advanced Technology Attachment) is an industry standard for connecting storage to computers.  ATA is also known as IDE (Integrated Drive Electronics).  2 It. is a type of internal computer port that attaches to hard drives and other devices.

3 PATA Parallel ATA (Advanced Technology Attachment) was originally known simply as ATA (pronounced by sounding out the letters). The ATA standard evolved into many flavors, each subsequent type increasing data transfer rates.

 4 PATA devices are easy to spot by the rather large 40-pin port that connects to a parallel ATA cable. PATA cables are flat, wide, ribboned cables with 40 parallel wires, hence the designation, parallel. 5 Data is split amongst the lanes and travels in parallel between the PATA controller and the connected device in a master/slave configuration.6 Cables later increased to 80-wires in order to break through a data transfer ceiling hit with the 40-wire flavor of parallel ATA known as ATA/33. The first 80-wire iteration was ATA/66 with a theoretical maximum data transfer rate of 66.6 megabytes per second (MBps), or twice that of ATA/33. PATA has been replaced by the faster, sleeker port technology known as Serial ATA, or SATA. Virtually all devices are now made to conform to the SATA standard.
 

What Is SATA(eSATA)?

1. Serial ATA (Advanced Technology Attachment) is an interface used to connect hard drives and other peripherals to a PC. It is the evolutionary replacement for the Parallel ATA (PATA) physical storage interface.

In other words, Serial ATA is a storage interface specification for the next-generation computing platform. This interface will be used to connect storage devices such as hard disc drives, DVDs, and CD-R/Ws to the motherboard and is the replacement for today's Parallel ATA physical storage interface.

Serial ATA technology allows for platform cost reductions and performance improvements while supporting a seamless transition from Parallel ATA technology. Serial ATA supplies storage interface headroom, beginning with 1.5 Gbps and scaling to 2x, 4x, and beyond. At the same time, Serial ATA is a drop-in solution that is compatible with existing ATA software drivers and runs on standard operating systems without modification. It provides for systems that are easier to design, with narrower cables that are simple to route and install, smaller cable connectors, improved silicon design, and lower voltages, which alleviate current design constraints in Parallel ATA. Configuration of Serial ATA storage devices is much simpler, with many of today's requirements for jumpers and settings no longer needed.

2. The SATA interface is more streamlined than ATA and provides serial architecture for greater speed than the older parallel technology. SATA cables are narrow and can be up to three feet (1 meter) in length, whereas parallel cables are much wider and limited to a length of 18 inches (45.7 cm).

3. External Serial Advanced Technology Attachment or eSATA is an external interface for SATA technologies. It competes with FireWire 400 and universal serial bus (USB) 2.0 to provide fast data transfer speeds for external storage devices.  With eSATA, the speed of  SATA expands to encompass exterior storage solutions.

4. While eSATA reaches transfer rates triple those of USB 2.0 and FireWire 400, it does have one drawback. eSATA requires its own power connector, unlike the aforementioned interfaces. However, it is an excellent choice for external disk storage. Unlike USB and FireWire interfaces, eSATA does not have to translate data between the interface and the computer. This enhances data transfer speeds, while saving computer processor resources and eliminating the need for an extra off-load chip.

中英文對照:

 什麼是ATA (PATA)？

1.ATA 是連接儲存裝置和電腦的規格標準。(其實IDE正確說法是ATA，但由於市面上都稱為IDE，所以大家都對IDE比較熟析。)

 ATA亦稱IDE (聯合推進電子)。

 2.ATA是一種讓硬碟能在主機內部和電腦連結的類型。

 3.PATA(全名 Parallel ATA)過去通稱ATA。ATA不斷進步，每當進步一個等級，它的速度就會變得比較快。日後有了SATA，為了避免SATA與ATA混淆，所以後來才有了PATA的出現。

 4.PATA的裝置由40根針所組成，很容易分辨得出來。PATA的排線是扁平、寬面的，內部有40條平行的電纜，也就是P(平行)名稱的由來。5.傳輸資料的時候，資料會分給這40根電纜傳輸。6.後來為了提高速度、超越40根電纜速度的瓶頸，做出了80根電纜的排線。40根電纜的ATA是視為ATA/33，80根的視為ATA/66，它的理想速度是每秒66.6MB，為ATA/33(每秒33.3MB)的兩倍。

什麼是SATA (eSATA)？

1. SATA是PC與儲存裝置(如硬碟)連接的介面。是將取代ATA的進化版

換句話說，連續ATA是下一代計算的平臺的存貯介面規格。 這個介面將被用於連接存貯設備例如磁盤驅動器， DVDs和CDR/Ws到主板並且是替換為今天平行的ATA物理存儲器介面。

序列ATA技術考慮到平臺成本降低和表現改善，當支持無縫的轉折從平行的ATA技術時。 連續ATA供應存貯介面淨空高度，從1.5 Gbps和結垢開始對2x， 4x和以遠。 同時，連續ATA是a下落在沒有修改，是與現有的ATA軟件驅動器和奔跑相容在標準操作系統的解答。 它提供是更加容易設計的系統，是簡單尋址和安裝的更加狹窄的纜繩，更小的電纜接頭、被改進的矽設計和低壓，平行緩和當前設計約束ATA。 連續ATA存貯設備的配置是簡單，與不再需要的許多套頭衫的今天要求和設置。

2. SATA的介面比ATA還要精巧，而且它的序列傳輸比ATA的並列式傳輸還要快。SATA的排線比較細，可達1公尺，並列式的排線寬，最長也只有45.7cm。

3. eSATA是提供外接硬碟與電腦連接的線，它用SATA的高傳輸速度技術與火線400及USB競爭，提供外接式硬碟新的選擇。

4.. 雖然eSATA的傳輸速度是USB和Fire Wire的三倍，它有一個缺點。USB和Fire Wire連到電腦後能馬上使用，但是eSATA還要再插一條自己的電源。

(註):標黃色的為翻譯