Archived:What Is SATA, SATA II, and SATA III, and Which Controllers Have Support for It?

Updated Nov 2, 2020

NI does not actively maintain this document.

This content provides support for older products and technology, so you may notice outdated links or obsolete information about operating systems or other relevant products.

Reported In

Hardware

  • PXI Controller

Issue Details

What Is SATA, SATA II, and SATA III, and Which Controllers Have Support for It?

Solution


SATA stands for Serial Advanced Technology Attachment. 
 
SATA I is the first generation SATA interface, and it runs at 1.5 Gb/s, although the actual bandwidth throughput is up to 150MB/s, due to 8b/10b encoding.
 
SATA II is a second generation SATA interface, and it runs at 3.0 Gb/s, although the actual bandwidth throughput is up to 300MB/s, due to 8b/10b encoding.
 
SATA III is a third generation SATA interface, and it runs at 6.0Gb/s, although the actual bandwidth throughput is up to 600MB/s, due to 8b/10b encoding.
 
SATA is completely forward and backward compatible. SATA II specifications provide backward compatibility to function on SATA I ports. SATA III specifications provide backward compatibility to function on SATA I and SATA II ports. However, the maximum speed of the drive will be slower due to the lower speed limitations of the port. This means that a SATA I controller will work with a SATA II drive, but the speed will be limited to 1.5 Gb/s, for example.  In addition, a SATA II controller will work with a SATA I drive but again with speed limited to 1.5 Gb/s. The same concept goes for SATA III with SATA I or SATA II.
 
The list below is current as of 2010 and will not be updated. Any controller released after the PXIe-8135 should be SATA III (as of 2015), but it's a good idea to confirm via BIOS settings prior to making that assumption. 
 
Controllers with SATA I support:
  • NI PXI-8104
  • NI PXI(e)-8105
  • NI PXI(e)-8106
  • NI PXI-8119
Controllers with SATA II support:
  • NI PXI(e)-8101
  • NI PXI(e)-8102
  • NI PXI(e)-8108
  • NI PXI-8110
  • NI PXIe-8130
  • NI PXIe-8133