SATA stands for Serial Advanced Technology Attachment.
SATA II (revision 2.x) interface, formally known as SATA 3Gb/s, is a second generation SATA interface running at 3.0 Gb/s. The bandwidth throughput, which is supported by the interface, is up to 300MB/s.
SATA III (revision 3.x) interface, formally known as SATA 6Gb/s, is a third generation SATA interface running at 6.0Gb/s. The bandwidth throughput, which is supported by the interface, is up to 600MB/s. This interface is backwards compatible with SATA 3 Gb/s interface.
SATA Revisions
- SATA rev 1: 1.5 Gbit/s - 150 MB/s
- SATA rev 2: 3 Gbit/s - 300 MB/s
- SATA rev 3: 6 Gbit/s - 600 MB/s
The Serial ATA International Organization (SATA-IO) is the group responsible for developing, managing, and driving adoption of the Serial ATA specifications.
Serial ATA host-adapters and devices communicate via a single high-speed seven-wire serial cable instead of a parallel bus used in previous technologies.
The Serial ATA host controller interface (AHCI) specifications describe the register-level interface for a host controller for Serial ATA. The specification includes a description of the hardware/software interface between system software and the host controller hardware, and is intended for hardware component designers, system builders and device driver (software) developers.
For more information see Drive Controller Types for the PC.