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Chapter 2
SATA Technical Overview
Objectives
In order to understand SATA, you must first understand ATA. This includes understanding the ATA
Architecture, the Protocol, the Task Register Interface, and the Command Sets used to store and
retrieve information. This chapter provides an introduction to Serial ATA technology. You will learn
about the following topics:
1. What ATA is and how it impacts SATA
2. SATA Standards and Specifications
a. Standards work done by INCITS T-13 Working Group
i. ATA/ATAPI 1-6 for parallel ATA
ii. ATA/ATAPI 7 for Serial ATA
iii. ATA-8 for SCSI, such as protocol layer segmentation (e.g., Command, Transport ...