Serial ATA (SATA) is a new storage interface designed to replace parallel ATA (e.g. IDE technology). SATA was designed for a variety of reasons including performance headroom, cabling issues, and voltage tolerance requirements. SATA combines software transparency, low cost, scalability, and design flexibility. SATA has attracted widespread industry support through the Serial ATA Working Group (www.serialata.org) ^†.

SATA is defined as the primary inside the box storage connection only, with no outside the box implementation. It is a storage device centric technology and does not support other peripherals, such as cameras, scanners, or printers.

The Serial ATA 1.0 specification outlines the following benefits:

• Performance Headroom: SATA provides higher performance than equivalent ATA with performance scaling from 150MB/sec available in Generation 1, to 300MB/sec available in Generation 2, and is ultimately forecasted to reach 600MB/sec during its anticipated 10-year road map.
  
  
• Software Transparency with Legacy Parallel ATA: This enables a relatively easy transition to the new technology.
  
  
• Low Cost: SATA is cost competitive with equivalent Parallel ATA solutions, including hosts, devices, and cabling in volume quantities.

This applies to:

Intel® 865 Chipset Family Intel® 875P Chipset Intel® 910 Express Chipset Family Intel® 915 Express Chipset Family Intel® 925X Express Chipset Family Intel® 945 Express Chipset Family Intel® 955X Express Chipset Mobile Intel® 910GML Express Chipset Mobile Intel® 915 Express Chipset Family