Modern technologies are constantly developing, so many people have quite logical questions about whether old interfaces will work with new ones and vice versa. In this article we will talk in detail about the compatibility of SATA 2 and SATA 3. This article is recommended for beginners.
History and difference of SATA 2 and SATA 3
On January 7, 2003, the world finally saw the SATA first revision. The bus was supposed to work at a frequency of 1.5 GHz, this could provide a bandwidth of about 150 MB / s or 1.2 Gbit / s. The performance loss of one fifth was explained using a unique 8b / 10b coding system. With such a system, for every 8 bits of working information there were 2 service bits.
Serial Ata abandoned the parallel bus in favor of the serial bus, which explains the advantage of SATA over other specifications. Using the newest way to transport data in the system, you can get the best result.
Compatible SATA 2 and SATA 3
The SATA specification has long been a global format, but still a number of questions arise related to the compatibility of newer versions of this format with old ones. If you take SATA 3 and SATA 2 specifically, then you definitely need to talk about SSDs and the latest hard drives that are available for completely new motherboards.
These formats are absolutely compatible, the only nuance is the data transfer rate: the older version has a bandwidth of up to 3 GB / s, and the new version has up to 6 GB / s, respectively. So these two device formats have absolutely no threats and risks to the equipment, both versions have a seven-pin connector. The situation with HDDs is such that, having a throughput of up to 3 GB / s, in reality they issue a maximum of 200 Mb / s. So the situation with the HDD is rather “funny” - by connecting a new HDD to the SATA 2 connector, you will not notice any performance loss.
SSD is arranged differently: a solid state drive with a SATA 3 connector, although it can be connected to a SATA 2 connector, but the read speed will be 2 times lower, so the meaning in such a drive is lost. It will be more convenient and faster HDD. Compatibility SATA 2 and SATA 3 - this is perhaps the main feature of this bus, so it is so popular when using peripherals.
It is worth saying a few words about the software, since a lot depends on the relevance of your OS. In Windows 7 and younger, the system will be able to independently optimize the operation of SSDs using chaotic rather than sequential recording of information.
Micro and Mini SATA
Recently, a non-profit company called SATA-IO (which stands for Serial ATA International Organization) announced the completion of a new specification for mini-SATA, or, in short, mSATA. The development was attended by specialists from leading companies in the world, such as Samsung, Dell, Lenovo and others. If we analyze its characteristics, it turns out that this is a printed circuit board with flash memory chips soldered on it, the size of which is equal to a regular credit card. The model, which is equipped with 62 GB of memory in comparison with a 2.5-inch storage device, is only 0.15 of its volume, half the size of power consumption and 12.5% by weight.
By the way, Toshiba was the first to produce flash memory. New Toshiba devices include drives with an mSATA connector, and representatives of the SG2 Half-Slim family are equipped with a SATA connector. The volume that they can accommodate is 30 and 62 GB. The new format has the same bandwidth as SATA 2, and in general differs from it only in miniature size. The maximum sequential read speed from these drives is 0.180 Gb / s, and the highest recorded speed is 0.070 Gb / s. The weight of these devices is the same and does not exceed 9 g.
Finally
So to summarize. The SATA specification was and still is a breakthrough in the field of storage devices. These connectors are designed so that even new models can successfully work on older devices due to the compatibility of SATA 2 and SATA 3. Very soon, mSATA will be on a par with its older brothers, which will completely rework the sphere of computer drives, due to its small size and smaller energy consumption.