LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Serial: Serial Ata
built 633 days ago
Beyond configuration emulation requirements, Emulating Parallel ATA mode restricts the controller from doing Native Serial ATA mode functionality described in the next section. Another notable distinction is that parallel ATA has many transfer modes each with a unique transfer speed associated with it. Serial ATA emulating Parallel ATA mode controllers ... must support parallel ATA transfer modes, but its transfer speed is much faster then all parallel ATA transfer modes. While Serial ATA controllers operate at higher transfer speeds it is possible for them to claim to operate in slower parallel ATA transfer modes such as Programmed Input/Output (PIO).
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Serial ATA is the next -generation internal storage interconnect, designed to replace parallel ATA technology. Serial ATA is the proactive evolution of the ATA interface from a parallel bus to a serial bus architecture. This architecture overcomes the electrical constraints that are increasing the difficulty of continued speed enhancements for the classic parallel ATA bus. Serial ATA will be introduced at 150Mbytes/sec, with a roadmap already planned to 600Mbytes/sec, supporting up to 10 years of storage evolution based on historical trends. Though Serial ATA will not be able to directly interface with legacy Ultra ATA hardware, it is fully compliant with the ATA protocol and ... is software compatible.
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The solution to identifying the Serial ATA mode problem is using the correct PCI Sub-Class code. Appendix D of the latest PCI specification lists all the Sub-Class codes for Base Class 01h, mass storage controllers. Sub-Class code 01h, IDE controller, should be used by Emulating Parallel ATA mode controllers. A new Sub-Class code 06h, Serial ATA controller, should be used by Native Serial ATA mode controllers.
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Serial ATA technology provides a new serial interconnect designed to change the way vendors develop storage systems. The first deployments, where price is an important issue, were intended for client applications, entry-level servers and network-attached storage. As the infrastructure continues to develop, Serial ATA will continue to penetrate into higher-end servers and more complex storage systems.
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Havant, UK, Nov. 24 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Xyratex Storage Systems (Nasdaq: XRTX) recently demonstrated the industry's first integrated Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) expander based storage enclosure. The demonstration featured operational IO between SAS Host Bus Adaptors, expanders and disk drives. Xyratex's 3U 16 drive storage system will house between 4.8TB of SAS or 8TB of S-ATA storage in a single enclosure -- this is the storage industry's first fully operational SAS solution.
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To utilize the new features of the Serial ATA standard and cables, a new method of connectors ... needed to be developed. Below is a picture showing the older parallel ATA connectors on a hard drive compared to the Serial ATA connectors on a new hard drive.
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