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PATA, or Parallel ATA, is an internal computer port that connects to hard drives and other devices. It has been replaced by the faster and more efficient SATA port technology. PATA cables are flat, wide ribbon cables with 40 parallel wires, while SATA cables are narrow and require less power. SATA devices are also hot swappable and can be controlled by peer-to-peer technology. Older motherboards can run SATA devices using a third-party controller.
PATA, also known as Parallel ATA (Advanced Technology Attachment), is a type of internal computer port that connects to hard drives and other devices. It has been replaced by the faster and more elegant port technology known as Serial ATA or SATA. Virtually all devices are now compliant with the SATA standard.
Originally, PATA was known simply as ATA (pronounced spelling). The ATA standard has evolved into many variations, with each successive type increasing the speed of data transfer. It wasn’t until the serial version of ATA came along that the original parallel standard retroactively became known as PATA.
PATA devices are easy to spot thanks to the sizable 40-pin port that plugs into a parallel ATA cable. These cables are flat, wide, ribbon cables with 40 parallel wires, hence the designation, parallel. The data is split across the lanes and travels in parallel between the PATA controller and the connected device in a master/slave configuration. Cables later increased to 80 wires to overcome a data transfer limit hit with the 40-wire type of parallel ATA known as ATA/33. The first 80-thread iteration was ATA/66 with a theoretical maximum data transfer rate of 66.6 megabytes per second (MBps), or double that of ATA/33.
The cables have a maximum barrier length of 18 inches (46 cm) and require 5 volts of power. One side of a PATA cable features a red line to indicate the pin one layout, which is useful when connecting the cable to a compatible device. The death of PATA, however, was that it hit a 150MBps data transfer limit.
SATA cables can be up to 3 feet (1 meter) long, are very narrow, and require only 250 millivolts of power. The first version of SATA was as fast as ATA/150 (150 MBps), but used only a fraction of the power required by PATA, while also allowing for more airflow through the case. SATA II pushed data rates to 300 MBps and other specifications followed. Older motherboards that only have PATA slots can run SATA devices using a third-party SATA controller that plugs into the slot, thus allowing an upgrade to SATA without upgrading the motherboard.
During the interim switch to SATA, motherboards generally had both types of ports and controllers. One PATA port can control up to two legacy parallel devices. SATA uses peer-to-peer (rather than master/slave) technology, so one of its ports controls a device. Motherboards are built with multiple SATA ports to accommodate generous amounts of data storage and optional RAID configurations. SATA devices are also hot swappable, unlike PATA devices.
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