Term: SATA [Serial ATA]

SATA is short for “Serial ATA”. ATA is short for “AT Attachment”. AT, in turn, derives from the original IBM PC/AT, where AT stood for “Advanced Technology”.

SATA is a type of physical-data-transfer interface, and is most commonly associated with disk drives. In addition to the electrical characteristics of the interface, SATA also defines the techniques actually used to transfer data, as well as the physical characteristics of the connectors used for supported devices.

The SATA interface replaced the earlier ATA or Parallel ATA (PATA) interface, also often known as EIDE.