SATA Cable
The Serial ATA architecture replaces the wide Parallel ATA ribbon cable with a thin, flexible cable that can be up to 1 meter in length. The serial cable is smaller and easier to route inside the chassis. The small-diameter cable can help improve air flow inside the PC system chassis and facilitates future designs of smaller PC systems. The lower pin count of the smaller Serial ATA connector eliminates the need for the large and cumbersome 40-pin connectors required by Parallel ATA.
External SATA or eSATA, customers can now utilize shielded cable lengths up to 2 meters outside the PC to take advantage of the benefits the SATA interface brings to storage. SATA is now out of the box as an external standard, with specifically defined cables, connectors, and signal requirements released as new standards in mid-2004. eSATA provides more performance than existing solutions and is hot pluggable. Key benefits of eSATA:Up to 6 times faster than existing external storage solutions: USB 2.0, & 1394 Robust and user friendly external connection High performance, cost effective expansion storage Up to 2 meter shielded cables and connectors