serial ata

from The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (8 July 2008)
Serial Advanced Technology Attachment
SATA
Serial ATA

   <storage> (SATA, Serial ATA) A computer {bus} technology
   primarily designed for transfer of data to and from a {hard
   disk}.  SATA is the successor to {Advanced Technology
   Attachment} (ATA), which was given the {retronym} Parallel ATA
   (PATA) to distinguish it from Serial ATA.

   Serial ATA is designed to be scalable.  The original SATA/150
   or "SATA 1" can transfer up to 150 {MBps} and "SATA 3.0
   Gbit/s" has a maximum data rate of 300 {MBps}.

   Both SATA and PATA drives have built-in low level control
   electronics but the term {IDE} is usually restricted to
   parallel ATA drives.

   (http://www.serialata.org/).

   (2007-02-23)