Serial ATA - Page 2

Source: Maxtor

- Desktop Storage Interfaces

- ATA Device Connectivity

Parallel ATA allows up to two devices to be connected to a single port using a master / slave communication technique. Both devices are daisy-chained together via one ribbon cable that is an unterminated multidrop bus.

The standard parallel ATA software and device driver access the Serial ATA subsystem in exactly the same manner as parallel ATA and will function correctly. For Serial ATA however, the software views the two devices as if they were masters on two separate ports. The drive interface section of the host adapter uses a new design that converts the normal operations of the software into a serial data / control stream. The Serial ATA structure connects each of the two drives with individual cables in a point-to-point fashion.