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Conventicle Act 1664

The Conventicle Act 1664 was an Act of the Parliament of England (16 Cha. 2. c. 4 ) that forbade conventicles, defined as religious assemblies of more than five people other than an immediate family, outside the auspices of the Church of England and the rubrics of the 1662 Book of Common Prayer.

This law was a part of the Clarendon Code, named after Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon, which aimed to discourage nonconformism and to strengthen the position of the Established Church but the Clarendon Code was not actually the work of Clarendon himself, who favoured a policy of greater tolerance towards dissenters. These prohibitions led many, such as the Covenanters, to vacate their parishes rather than submit to the new Episcopal authorities. Just as the ministers left so too did the congregations, following their old pastors to sermons on the hillside. From small beginnings these field assemblies—or conventicles—were to grow into major problems of public order for the government.

The operation of the Clarendon Code at least as far as Protestants were concerned was mitigated somewhat by Charles II's Royal Declaration of Indulgence in 1672, which suspended the execution of the Penal Laws and allowed a certain number of non-conformist chapels to be staffed and constructed, with the pastors subject to royal approval.

The Conventicle Act was formally repealed in 1689, although its authority had lapsed, by default, in 1667.

Provisions
Firstly, the Act confirmed that the Religion Act 1592 was still in force.

Secondly, it declared that if any person aged sixteen or over after the 1 July 1664 is present at any religious meeting other than of the Church of England where there are five persons or more assembled together (other than those of the same household), then they would be tried by two justices of the peace or one chief magistrate, without a jury.

If found guilty, the penalties were as follows:
 * first offence: imprisonment for up to three months without bail, or a five pounds fine (to be paid to the poor of the convicted person's parish).
 * second offence: imprisonment for up to six months without bail, or a ten pounds fine (to be disposed of as above).
 * third offence: transportation for seven years, or a one hundred pounds fine.

Subsequent sections of the Act allowed for the breaking up of such meetings, if a warrant had been issued, and the arresting of the convenor of the meeting, and the owner of the venue, who were subject to the same penalties as above, if found guilty. There were penalties for officials not carrying out court orders. The prosecution had to occur within three months of the act, and no other prosecution could be brought for the offence. A special clause applied to Quakers who refused to swear an oath in court without due reason. They were immediately declared guilty and sentenced to transportation. Minor variations in procedure and penalties were also made for peers of the realm. The Act was to remain in force for three years.

Jewish reaction
Although aimed at Nonconformists, when the Conventicle Act was passed, the Jews, led by their new rabbi Jacob Sasportas, took their anxieties to Charles II, who told them, "laughing and spitting", not to worry; later the Privy Council put it in writing that Jews could "promise themselves the effects of the same favour as formerly they have had, so long as they demean themselves peaceably and quietly, with due obedience to His Majesty's laws and without scandal to his government". Thus the English Jews, by an act of omission, as it were, became subjects, under no more disabilities than those inherent in their own unwillingness, like Catholics and Nonconformists, to belong to the Church of England or, in their particular case, to swear Christian oaths.

title: Conventicle Act 1664


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Kōki Hirota

Kōki Hirota (廣田 弘毅) was a Japanese diplomat and politician who served as prime minister of Japan from 1936 to 1937. Originally his name was Jōtarō (丈太郎). He was executed for war crimes committed during the Second Sino-Japanese War at the Tokyo Trials.

Early life
Hirota was born on 14 February 1878, in Kaji-machi dori (鍛冶町通り) in what is now part of Chūō-ku, Fukuoka, Fukuoka Prefecture, to stonemason Hirota Tokubei (廣田 徳平). His father had been adopted into the Hirota family of stonemasons.

Tokubei married Take (タケ), a daughter of the president of a Japanese noodle company. On 14 February 1878, the couple had a son, whom Tokubei named Jōtarō (丈太郎). They later had three more children. Tokubei's name is engraved on the epigraph that recognized masons who contributed to the construction of a statue of Emperor Kameyama in Higashi kōen (東公園) in Fukuoka city.

Hirota's writing was recognized as good from a young age since the name plate of the torii gate of Suikyo Shrine was written by Hirota when he was 11. After attending Shuyukan, he continued his education at Tokyo Imperial University and graduated with a law degree. One of his classmates was the postwar Prime Minister Shigeru Yoshida.

First diplomatic career
After graduation, Hirota entered the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to become a career diplomat, and he served in a number of overseas posts. In 1923, he became director of the Europe and America Department of the Foreign Ministry. After he was minister to the Netherlands, he was ambassador to the Soviet Union from 1928 to 1932.

In 1933, Hirota became Foreign Minister in the cabinet of Prime Minister Saitō Makoto, just after Japan had withdrawn from the League of Nations. He retained the position in the subsequent cabinet of Admiral Keisuke Okada.

As Foreign Minister, Hirota negotiated the purchase of the Chinese Eastern Railway in Manchuria from Soviet interests. He also promulgated the Hirota Sangensoku (the Three Principles by Hirota) on 28 October 1935 as the definitive statement of Japan's position towards China. The three principles were the establishment of a Japan–China–Manchukuo bloc, the organization of a Sino-Japanese common front against the spread of communism, and the suppression of anti-Japanese activities within China. Hirota argued that warlordism and Chinese Communism represented a "festering sore deep down in the bosom of Eastern Asia" that threatened "all Asian races with sure and inescapable death" and considered further military engagement in China to be "heroic surgery," rather than invasion.

Prime Minister
In 1936, with the radical factions within the Japanese military discredited after the 26 February incident, Hirota was selected to replace Okada as Prime Minister of Japan. Hirota placated the military by reinstating the system by which only active-duty Army or Navy officers (see ) could serve in the Cabinet posts of war minister or navy minister. The military, via the institution of the Imperial General Headquarters, had abused the system in the past to bring down civilian governments.

In terms of foreign policy, the Anti-Comintern Pact with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy was signed during his premiership. The treaty was the predecessor to the Tripartite Pact of 1940.

Hirota's term lasted for slightly less than a year. He resigned after a disagreement with Hisaichi Terauchi, who was serving as the war minister, over a speech by the Rikken Seiyūkai representative Kunimatsu Hamada criticizing military interference in politics. Kazushige Ugaki was appointed as his successor but was unable to form the government because of army opposition. In February 1937, Senjūrō Hayashi was appointed to replace Hirota as prime minister.

Second diplomatic career
Hirota soon returned to government service as foreign minister under Hayashi's successor, Prince Konoe Fumimaro. During his second term as foreign minister, Hirota strongly opposed the military's aggression against China, which completely undermined his efforts to create a Japan-China-Manchukuo alliance against the Soviet Union. He also spoke out repeatedly against the escalation of the Second Sino-Japanese War. The military soon tired of his criticism and forced his retirement in 1938.

In 1945, however, Hirota returned to government service to lead Japanese peace negotiations with the Soviet Union. At the time, Japan and the Soviet Union were still under a non-aggression pact even though all other Allied Powers had declared war on Japan. Hirota attempted to persuade Joseph Stalin's government to stay out of the war, but the Soviet Union ultimately declared war on Japan in between the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Postwar
Following Japan's surrender, Hirota was arrested as a Class A war criminal and brought before the International Military Tribunal for the Far East (IMTFE). He offered no defense and was found guilty of the following charges:
 * Count 1 (waging wars of aggression, and war or wars in violation of international law)
 * Count 27 (waging unprovoked war against the Republic of China)
 * Count 55 (disregard for duty to prevent breaches of the laws of war)

He was sentenced to death by hanging and was executed at Sugamo Prison. The severity of his sentence remains controversial, as Hirota was the only civilian executed as a result of the IMTFE proceedings.

As foreign minister, Hirota had received regular reports from the War Ministry about the military's atrocities, such as the Nanjing Massacre, but lacked any authority over the offending military units themselves. Nonetheless, the tribunal condemned Hirota's failure to insist for the Japanese Cabinet act to put an end to the atrocities.

Honours

 * Grand Cordon of the Order of the Sacred Treasure (1933)
 * Grand Cordon of the Order of the Rising Sun (1934)

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Kōki Hirota


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Senjūrō Hayashi

Senjūrō Hayashi (林 銑十郎) was a Japanese politician and general. He served as Imperial Japanese Army Commander of the Japanese Korean Army during the Mukden Incident and the invasion of Manchuria. He briefly served as prime minister of Japan in 1937.

Early life
Hayashi was born on 23 February 1876, in Kodatsuno, Kanazawa, Ishikawa Prefecture, the first son of secretary of Tonami District Office Hayashi Shishirō and his wife Bessho Saha. The family was a samurai-class family formerly in service to Kaga Domain. The second oldest of his brothers Hayashi Ryōzō became an Imperial Army Colonel, and the youngest brother Shirakawa Yūkichi became Vice Mayor of Tokyo.

Hayashi dropped out of school in July 1894 to enlist in the Imperial Japanese Army at the start of the First Sino-Japanese War. After the end of the war, he attended the Imperial Japanese Army Academy, and on graduation in June 1897 was assigned to the IJA 7th Infantry Regiment. in 1903, he graduated from the Army Staff College. With the start of the Russo-Japanese War, Hayashi participated in the Siege of Port Arthur.

Military career

Hayashi's first major command from 1918 to 1920 was as commanding officer of the IJA 57th Infantry Regiment, followed by a time in 1921 attached to the Technical Research Headquarters and as an acting Military Investigator. From 1921 to 1923 he was the head of the Preparatory Course at the Imperial Japanese Army Academy, followed by a time attached to the Inspectorate General of Military Training. From 1923 to 1924 he was the Japanese Army Representative to the League of Nations, followed by another stint attached to the Inspectorate General of Military Training from 1924 to 1925. In 1925, Hayashi became the commanding Officer of the IJA 2nd Infantry Brigade. In 1926 he was made Commandant of the Tokyo Bay Fortress. In 1927, he became the Commandant of the Army War College, followed in 1928 as Deputy Inspector-General of Military Training. Finally in 1929 he became the General Officer Commanding the Imperial Guards Division.

In 1930, Lieutenant-General Senjūrō Hayashi, was made Commander in Chief of the Japanese Korean Army. On the day after the Mukden Incident on 19 September, he ordered the IJA 20th Division to split its force, forming the 39th Mixed Brigade. Acting without authorization by the Emperor or central government in Tokyo, Hayashi ordered the 39th Mixed Brigade to cross the Yalu River that same day into Manchuria. The Cabinet was forced to concede the point to the military afterwards and the movement of the 39th Mixed Brigade from Korea was authorized on 22 September.

Following his command in Korea, Hayashi was made Inspector General of Military Training and a member of the Supreme War Council from 1932 to 1934. In 1932, he was awarded with the Order of the Sacred Treasure (1st class) and in 1934, he was awarded the Order of the Rising Sun (1st class).

Political career

From 1934 to 1935 Hayashi was Army Minister, and again member of the Supreme War Council from 1935 until his retirement the next year.

As Army Minister, Hayashi was a supporter of Major General Tetsuzan Nagata, who was Chief of Military Bureau and the leader of the Tōseiha faction within the Imperial Japanese Army. The Tōseiha scored a victory in July 1935 when General Jinzaburō Masaki, one of the leaders of the Kōdōha faction was removed as Inspector General of Military Training. But Nagata was assassinated the next month (the Aizawa Incident). The struggle between the Tōseiha and Kōdōha factions continued below the surface of the government; and the war in North China carried on apace until February 1936.

Hayashi also promoted Fumimaro Konoe's doctrines, as a "right-winger" amongst the militarists, against "left-winger" radical militarists, led by Kingoro Hashimoto, wanted to establish a Military Shogunate through revolutionary means.

Hayashi also happen to the president of Greater Japan Muslim League (大日本回教協会, Dai Nihon Kaikyō Kyōkai).

Hayashi served as Prime Minister of Japan for a brief four-month period in 1937, where he tried to establish a cabinet that rose above the factional strife of the political parties. He later demanded that members of his cabinet renounce their party ties. Later from 1940 to 1941, he was a Privy Councillor. Hayashi suffered from an intracranial hemorrhage in January 1943 and died at his home of 4 February without regaining consciousness. He was posthumously awarded the Order of the Golden Kite (4th class) and the Order of the Paulownia Flowers.

Honours
From the corresponding article in the Japanese Wikipedia

 * Grand Cordon of the Order of the Sacred Treasure (1932)
 * Grand Cordon of the Order of the Rising Sun (1934)
 * Grand Cordon of the Order of the Rising Sun with Paulownia Flowers (1943; posthumous)

title: Senjūrō Hayashi


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SATA

SATA (Serial AT Attachment) is a computer bus interface that connects host bus adapters to mass storage devices such as hard disk drives, optical drives, and solid-state drives. Serial ATA succeeded the earlier Parallel ATA (PATA) standard to become the predominant interface for storage devices.

Serial ATA industry compatibility specifications originate from the Serial ATA International Organization (SATA-IO) which are then released by the INCITS Technical Committee T13, AT Attachment (INCITS T13).

History
SATA was announced in 2000 in order to provide several advantages over the earlier PATA interface such as reduced cable size and cost (seven conductors instead of 40 or 80), native hot swapping, faster data transfer through higher signaling rates, and more efficient transfer through an (optional) I/O queuing protocol. Revision 1.0 of the specification was released in January 2003.

Serial ATA industry compatibility specifications originate from the Serial ATA International Organization (SATA-IO). The SATA-IO group collaboratively creates, reviews, ratifies, and publishes the interoperability specifications, the test cases and plugfests. As with many other industry compatibility standards, the SATA content ownership is transferred to other industry bodies: primarily INCITS T13 and an INCITS T10 subcommittee (SCSI), a subgroup of T10 responsible for Serial Attached SCSI (SAS). The remainder of this article strives to use the SATA-IO terminology and specifications.

Before SATA's introduction in 2000, PATA was simply known as ATA. The "AT Attachment" (ATA) name originated after the 1984 release of the IBM Personal Computer AT, more commonly known as the IBM AT. The IBM AT's controller interface became a de facto industry interface for the inclusion of hard disks. "AT" was IBM's abbreviation for "Advanced Technology"; thus, many companies and organizations indicate SATA is an abbreviation of "Serial Advanced Technology Attachment". However, the ATA specifications simply use the name "AT Attachment", to avoid possible trademark issues with IBM.

SATA host adapters and devices communicate via a high-speed serial cable over two pairs of conductors. In contrast, parallel ATA (the redesignation for the legacy ATA specifications) uses a 16-bit wide data bus with many additional support and control signals, all operating at a much lower frequency. To ensure backward compatibility with legacy ATA software and applications, SATA uses the same basic ATA and ATAPI command sets as legacy ATA devices.

The world's first SATA hard disk drive is the Seagate Barracuda SATA V, which was released in Jan 2003.

SATA has replaced parallel ATA in consumer desktop and laptop computers; SATA's market share in the desktop PC market was 99% in 2008. PATA has mostly been replaced by SATA for any use; with PATA in declining use in industrial and embedded applications that use CompactFlash (CF) storage, which was designed around the legacy PATA standard. A 2008 standard, CFast, to replace CompactFlash is based on SATA.

Hot plug
The Serial ATA spec requires SATA devices be capable of hot plugging; that is, devices that meet the specification are capable of insertion or removal of a device into or from a backplane connector (combined signal and power) that has power on. After insertion, the device initializes and then operates normally. Depending upon the operating system, the host may also initialize, resulting in a hot swap. The powered host and device do not need to be in an idle state for safe insertion and removal, although unwritten data may be lost when power is removed.

Unlike PATA, both SATA and eSATA support hot plugging by design. However, this feature requires proper support at the host, device (drive), and operating-system levels. In general, SATA devices fulfill the device-side hot-plugging requirements, and most SATA host adapters support this function.

For eSATA, hot plugging is supported in AHCI mode only. IDE mode does not support hot plugging.

Advanced Host Controller Interface
Advanced Host Controller Interface (AHCI) is an open host controller interface published and used by Intel, which has become a de facto standard. It allows the use of advanced features of SATA such as hotplug and native command queuing (NCQ). If AHCI is not enabled by the motherboard and chipset, SATA controllers typically operate in "IDE emulation" mode, which does not allow access to device features not supported by the ATA (also called IDE) standard.

Windows device drivers that are labeled as SATA are often running in IDE emulation mode unless they explicitly state that they are AHCI mode, in RAID mode, or a mode provided by a proprietary driver and command set that allowed access to SATA's advanced features before AHCI became popular. Modern versions of Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, FreeBSD, Linux with version 2.6.19 onward, as well as Solaris and OpenSolaris, include support for AHCI, but earlier operating systems such as Windows XP do not. Even in those instances, a proprietary driver may have been created for a specific chipset, such as Intel's.

Revisions
SATA revisions are typically designated with a dash followed by Roman numerals, e.g. "SATA-III", to avoid confusion with the speed, which is always displayed in Arabic numerals, e.g. "SATA 6 Gbit/s". The speeds given are the raw interface rate in Gbit/s including line code overhead, and the usable data rate in MB/s without overhead.

SATA revision 1.0 (1.5 Gbit/s, 150 MB/s, Serial ATA-150)
Revision 1.0a was released on January 7, 2003. First-generation SATA interfaces, now known as SATA 1.5 Gbit/s, communicate at a rate of 1.5 Gbit/s, and do not support Native Command Queuing (NCQ). Taking 8b/10b encoding overhead into account, they have an actual uncoded transfer rate of 1.2 Gbit/s (150 MB/s). The theoretical burst throughput of SATA 1.5 Gbit/s is similar to that of PATA/133, but newer SATA devices offer enhancements such as NCQ, which improve performance in a multitasking environment.

During the initial period after SATA 1.5 Gbit/s finalization, adapter and drive manufacturers used a "bridge chip" to convert existing PATA designs for use with the SATA interface. Bridged drives have a SATA connector, may include either or both kinds of power connectors, and, in general, perform identically to their native-SATA equivalents.

, the fastest 10,000 rpm SATA hard disk drives could transfer data at maximum (not average) rates of up to 157 MB/s, which is beyond the capabilities of the older PATA/133 specification and also exceeds the capabilities of SATA 1.5 Gbit/s.

SATA revision 2.0 (3 Gbit/s, 300 MB/s, Serial ATA-300)
SATA revision 2.0 was released in April 2004, introducing Native Command Queuing (NCQ). It is backward compatible with SATA 1.5 Gbit/s.

Second-generation SATA interfaces run with a native transfer rate of 3.0 Gbit/s that, when accounted for the 8b/10b encoding scheme, equals to the maximum uncoded transfer rate of 2.4 Gbit/s (300 MB/s). The theoretical burst throughput of the SATA revision 2.0, which is also known as the SATA 3 Gbit/s, doubles the throughput of SATA revision 1.0.

All SATA data cables meeting the SATA spec are rated for 3.0 Gbit/s and handle modern mechanical drives without any loss of sustained and burst data transfer performance. However, high-performance flash-based drives can exceed the SATA 3 Gbit/s transfer rate; this is addressed with the SATA 6 Gbit/s interoperability standard.

SATA revision 2.5
Announced in August 2005, SATA revision 2.5 consolidated the specification to a single document.

SATA revision 2.6
Announced in February 2007, SATA revision 2.6 introduced the following features:
 * Slimline connector.
 * Micro connector (initially for 1.8” HDD).
 * Mini Internal Multilane cable and connector.
 * Mini External Multilane cable and connector.
 * NCQ Priority.
 * NCQ Unload.
 * Enhancements to the BIST Activate FIS.
 * Enhancements for robust reception of the Signature FIS.

SATA revision 3.0 (6 Gbit/s, 600 MB/s, Serial ATA-600)
Serial ATA International Organization (SATA-IO) presented the draft specification of SATA 6 Gbit/s physical layer in July 2008, and ratified its physical layer specification on August 18, 2008. The full 3.0 standard was released on May 27, 2009.

Third-generation SATA interfaces run with a native transfer rate of 6.0 Gbit/s; taking 8b/10b encoding into account, the maximum uncoded transfer rate is 4.8 Gbit/s (600 MB/s). The theoretical burst throughput of SATA 6.0 Gbit/s is double that of SATA revision 2.0. It is backward compatible with earlier SATA implementations.

The SATA 3.0 specification contains the following changes:
 * 6 Gbit/s for scalable performance.
 * Continued compatibility with SAS, including SAS 6 Gbit/s, as per "a SAS domain may support attachment to and control of unmodified SATA devices connected directly into the SAS domain using the Serial ATA Tunneled Protocol (STP)" from the SATA Revision 3.0 Gold specification.
 * Isochronous Native Command Queuing (NCQ) streaming command to enable isochronous quality of service data transfers for streaming digital content applications.
 * An NCQ management feature that helps optimize performance by enabling host processing and management of outstanding NCQ commands.
 * Improved power management capabilities.
 * A small low insertion force (LIF) connector for more compact 1.8-inch storage devices.
 * A 7 mm optical disk drive profile for the slimline SATA connector (in addition to the existing 12.7 mm and 9.5 mm profiles).
 * Alignment with the INCITS ATA8-ACS standard.

In general, the enhancements are aimed at improving quality of service for video streaming and high-priority interrupts. In addition, the standard continues to support distances up to one meter. The newer speeds may require higher power consumption for supporting chips, though improved process technologies and power management techniques may mitigate this. The later specification can use existing SATA cables and connectors, though it was reported in 2008 that some OEMs were expected to upgrade host connectors for the higher speeds.

SATA revision 3.1
Released in July 2011, SATA revision 3.1 introduced or changed the following features:
 * mSATA, for solid-state drives in mobile computing devices, a PCI Express Mini Card-like connector that is electrically SATA. The connector was also used in some desktop computers, such as certain HP business PCs.
 * Zero-power optical disk drive, a SATA optical drive that draws no power when idle.
 * Queued TRIM Command, improves solid-state drive performance.
 * Required Link Power Management, reduces overall system power demand of several SATA devices.
 * Hardware Control Features, enable host identification of device capabilities.
 * Universal Storage Module (USM), a new standard for cableless plug-in (slot) powered storage for consumer electronics devices.

SATA revision 3.2
Released in August 2013, SATA revision 3.2 introduced the following features:
 * The SATA Express specification defines an interface that combines both SATA and PCI Express buses, making it possible for both types of storage devices to coexist. By employing PCI Express, a much higher theoretical throughput of 1969 MB/s is possible.
 * The SATA M.2 standard is a small form factor implementation of the SATA Express interface, with the addition of an internal USB 3.0 port; see the M.2 (NGFF) section below for a more detailed summary.
 * microSSD introduces a ball grid array electrical interface for miniaturized, embedded SATA storage.
 * USM Slim reduces thickness of Universal Storage Module (USM) from 14.5 mm to 9 mm.
 * DevSleep enables lower power consumption for always-on devices while they are in low-power modes such as InstantGo (which used to be known as Connected Standby).
 * Hybrid Information provides higher performance for solid-state hybrid drives.

SATA revision 3.3
Released in February 2016, SATA revision 3.3 introduced the following features:
 * Shingled magnetic recording (SMR) host-control support (device-controlled SMR HDDs are the same as standard CMR HDDs with respect to SATA compatibility). SMR provides a 25 percent or greater increase in hard disk drive capacity by overlapping tracks on the media.
 * Power Disable feature (see PWDIS pin) allows for remote power cycling of SATA drives and a Rebuild Assist function that speeds up the rebuild process to help ease maintenance in the data center.
 * Transmitter Emphasis Specification increases interoperability and reliability between host and devices in electrically demanding environments.
 * An activity indicator and staggered spin-up can be controlled by the same pin, adding flexibility and providing users with more choices.

The new Power Disable feature (similar to the SAS Power Disable feature) uses Pin 3 of the SATA power connector. Some legacy power supplies that provide 3.3 V power on Pin 3 would force drives with Power Disable feature to get stuck in a hard reset condition preventing them from spinning up. The problem can usually be eliminated by using a simple “Molex to SATA” power adaptor to supply power to these drives.

SATA revision 3.4
Released in June 2018, SATA revision 3.4 introduced the following features that enable monitoring of device conditions and execution of housekeeping tasks, both with minimal impact on performance:
 * Durable/Ordered Write Notification: enables writing selected critical cache data to the media, minimizing impact on normal operations.
 * Device Temperature Monitoring: allows for active monitoring of SATA device temperature and other conditions without impacting normal operation by utilizing the SFF-8609 standard for out-of-band (OOB) communications.
 * Device Sleep Signal Timing: provides additional definition to enhance compatibility between manufacturers’ implementations.

SATA revision 3.5
Released in July 2020, SATA revision 3.5 introduces features that enable increased performance benefits and promote greater integration of SATA devices and products with other industry I/O standards:
 * Device Transmit Emphasis for Gen 3 PHY: aligns SATA with other characteristics of other I/O measurement solutions to help SATA-IO members with testing and integration.
 * Defined Ordered NCQ Commands: allows the host to specify the processing relationships among queued commands and sets the order in which commands are processed in the queue.
 * Command Duration Limit Features: reduces latency by allowing the host to define quality of service categories, giving the host more granularity in controlling command properties. The feature helps align SATA with the "Fast Fail" requirements established by the Open Compute Project (OCP) and specified in the INCITS T13 Technical Committee standard.

SATA revision 3.5a was released in March 2021.

Cables, connectors, and ports

Connectors and cables present the most visible differences between SATA and parallel ATA drives. Unlike PATA, the same connectors are used on 3.5-inch SATA hard disks (for desktop and server computers) and 2.5-inch disks (for portable or small computers).

Standard SATA connectors for both data and power have a conductor pitch of 1.27 mm. Low insertion force is required to mate a SATA connector. A smaller mini-SATA or mSATA connector is used by smaller devices such as 1.8-inch SATA drives, some DVD and Blu-ray drives, and mini SSDs.

A special eSATA connector is specified for external devices, and an optionally implemented provision for clips to hold internal connectors firmly in place. SATA drives may be plugged into SAS controllers and communicate on the same physical cable as native SAS disks, but SATA controllers cannot handle SAS disks.

Female SATA ports (on motherboards for example) are for use with SATA data cables that have locks or clips to prevent accidental unplugging. Some SATA cables have right- or left-angled connectors to ease connection to circuit boards.

Data connector
The SATA standard defines a data cable with seven conductors (three grounds and four active data lines in two pairs) and 8 mm wide wafer connectors on each end. SATA cables can have lengths up to 1 m, and connect one motherboard socket to one hard drive. PATA ribbon cables, in comparison, connect one motherboard socket to one or two hard drives, carry either 40 or 80 wires, and are limited to 45 cm in length by the PATA specification; however, cables up to 90 cm are readily available. Thus, SATA connectors and cables are easier to fit in closed spaces and reduce obstructions to air cooling. Some cables even include a locking feature, whereby a small (usually metal) spring holds the plug in the socket.

SATA connectors may be straight, right-angled, or left-angled. Angled connectors allow lower-profile connections. Right-angled (also called 90-degree) connectors lead the cable immediately away from the drive, on the circuit-board side. Left-angled (also called 270-degree) connectors lead the cable across the drive towards its top.

One of the problems associated with the transmission of data at high speed over electrical connections is described as noise, which is due to electrical coupling between data circuits and other circuits. As a result, the data circuits can both affect other circuits and be affected by them. Designers use a number of techniques to reduce the undesirable effects of such unintentional coupling. One such technique used in SATA links is differential signaling. This is an enhancement over PATA, which uses single-ended signaling. The use of fully shielded, dual coax conductors, with multiple ground connections, for each differential pair improves isolation between the channels and reduces the chances of lost data in difficult electrical environments.

Standard connector

SATA specifies a different power connector than the four-pin Molex connector used on Parallel ATA (PATA) devices (and earlier small storage devices, going back to ST-506 hard disk drives and even to floppy disk drives that predated the IBM PC). It is a wafer-type connector, like the SATA data connector, but much wider (fifteen pins versus seven) to avoid confusion between the two. Some early SATA drives included the four-pin Molex power connector together with the new fifteen-pin connector, but most SATA drives now have only the latter.

The new SATA power connector contains many more pins for several reasons:
 * 3.3 V is supplied along with the traditional 5 V and 12 V supplies. However, very few drives actually use it.
 * Pin 3 in SATA revision 3.3 has been redefined as PWDIS and is used to enter and exit the POWER DISABLE mode in line with SAS-3. If Pin 3 is driven HIGH (2.1–3.6 V max), power to the drive circuitry is cut. Drives with this feature enabled do not power up in systems designed to SATA revision 3.1 or earlier, because Pin 3 driven HIGH prevents the drive from powering up. The workaround is to use a Molex adapter without 3.3 V or to put insulating tape over the PWDIS pin.
 * To reduce resistance and increase current capability, each voltage is supplied by three pins in parallel, though one pin in each group is intended for precharging (see below). Each pin should be able to carry 1.5 A.
 * Five parallel pins provide a low-resistance ground connection.
 * Two ground pins and one pin for each supplied voltage support hot-plug precharging. Ground pins 4 and 12 in a hot-swap cable are the longest, so they make contact first when the connectors are mated. Drive power connector pins 3, 7, and 13 are longer than the others, so they make contact next. The drive uses them to charge its internal bypass capacitors through current-limiting resistances. Finally, the remaining power pins make contact, bypassing the resistances and providing a low-resistance source of each voltage. This two-step mating process avoids glitches to other loads and possible arcing or erosion of the SATA power-connector contacts.
 * Pin 11 might be used (often by chassis or backplane hardware independent from SATA host controller and its data connection) for staggered spinup, activity indication, emergency head parking, or other vendor defined functions in various combinations. It is an open-collector signal, which may be pulled down by the connector or the drive.
 * Host signaling: If pulled down at the connector (as it is on most cable-style SATA power connectors), the drive spins up as soon as power is applied. If left floating, the drive waits until it is spoken to. This prevents many drives from spinning up simultaneously, which might draw too much power.
 * Drive signaling: The pin is also pulled low by the drive to indicate drive activity. This may be used to give feedback to the user through an LED. Relevant definitions of pin operation have changed multiple times in published revisions of SATA standard, so the observed behavior may be dependent on device version, host version, firmware and software configuration.  There is also a specification for transmission of drive temperature and other status values with activity signal pulses routinely used to make LED blink.

Passive adapters are available that convert a four-pin Molex connector to a SATA power connector, providing the 5 V and 12 V lines available on the Molex connector, but not 3.3 V. There are also four-pin Molex-to-SATA power adapters that include electronics to additionally provide the 3.3 V power supply. However, most drives do not require the 3.3 V power line.

Slimline connector
SATA 2.6 is the first revision that defined the slimline connector, intended for smaller form-factors such as notebook optical drives. Pin 1 of the slimline power connector, denoting device presence, is shorter than the others to allow hot-swapping. The slimline signal connector is identical and compatible with the standard version, while the power connector is reduced to six pins so it supplies only +5 V, and not +12 V or +3.3 V.

Low-cost adapters exist to convert from standard SATA to slimline SATA.

Micro connector
The micro SATA connector (sometimes called uSATA or μSATA ) originated with SATA 2.6, and is intended for 1.8-inch hard disk drives. There is also a micro data connector, similar in appearance but slightly thinner than the standard data connector.

Additional pins
Some SATA drives, in particular mechanical ones, come with an extra 4 or more pin interface which isn't uniformly standardized but nevertheless serves similar purpose defined by each drive manufacturer. As IDE drives used those extra pins for setting up Master and Slave drives, on SATA drives, those pins are generally used to select different Power modes for use in USB-SATA bridges or enables additional features like Spread Spectrum Clocking, SATA Speed Limit or Factory Mode for Diagnostics and Recovery, by the use of a jumper.

eSATA

Standardized in 2004, eSATA (e standing for external) provides a variant of SATA meant for external connectivity. It uses a more robust connector, longer shielded cables, and stricter (but backward-compatible) electrical standards. The protocol and logical signaling (link/transport layers and above) are identical to internal SATA. The differences are:

 * Minimum transmit amplitude increased: Range is 500–600 mV instead of 400–600 mV.
 * Minimum receive amplitude decreased: Range is 240–600 mV instead of 325–600 mV.
 * Maximum cable length increased to 2 m from 1 m.
 * The eSATA cable and connector is similar to the SATA 1.0a cable and connector, with these exceptions:
 * The eSATA connector is mechanically different to prevent unshielded internal cables from being used externally. The eSATA connector discards the L-shaped key and changes the position and size of the guides.
 * The eSATA insertion depth is deeper: 6.6 mm instead of 5 mm. The contact positions are also changed.
 * The eSATA cable has an extra shield to reduce EMI to FCC and CE requirements. Internal cables do not need the extra shield to satisfy EMI requirements because they are inside a shielded case.
 * The eSATA connector uses metal springs for shield contact and mechanical retention.
 * The eSATA connector has a design-life of 5,000 matings; the ordinary SATA connector is only specified for 50.

Aimed at the consumer market, eSATA enters an external storage market served also by the USB and FireWire interfaces. The SATA interface has certain advantages. Most external hard-disk-drive cases with FireWire or USB interfaces use either PATA or SATA drives and "bridges" to translate between the drives' interfaces and the enclosures' external ports; this bridging incurs some inefficiency. Some single disks can transfer 157 MB/s during real use, about four times the maximum transfer rate of USB 2.0 or FireWire 400 (IEEE 1394a) and almost twice as fast as the maximum transfer rate of FireWire 800. The S3200 FireWire 1394b specification reaches around 400 MB/s (3.2 Gbit/s), and USB 3.0 has a nominal speed of 5 Gbit/s. Some low-level drive features, such as S.M.A.R.T., may not operate through some USB or FireWire or USB+FireWire bridges; eSATA does not suffer from these issues provided that the controller manufacturer (and its drivers) presents eSATA drives as ATA devices, rather than as SCSI devices, as has been common with Silicon Image, JMicron, and Nvidia nForce drivers for Windows Vista. In those cases SATA drives do not have low-level features accessible.

The eSATA version of SATA 6G operates at 6.0 Gbit/s (the term "SATA III" is avoided by the SATA-IO organization to prevent confusion with SATA II 3.0 Gbit/s, which was colloquially referred to as "SATA 3G" [bit/s] or "SATA 300" [MB/s] since the 1.5 Gbit/s SATA I and 1.5 Gbit/s SATA II were referred to as both "SATA 1.5G" [bit/s] or "SATA 150" [MB/s]). Therefore, eSATA connections operate with negligible differences between them. Once an interface can transfer data as fast as a drive can handle them, increasing the interface speed does not improve data transfer.

There are some disadvantages, however, to the eSATA interface:
 * Devices built before the eSATA interface became popular lack external SATA connectors.
 * For small form-factor devices (such as external 2.5-inch disks), a PC-hosted USB or FireWire link can usually supply sufficient power to operate the device. However, eSATA connectors cannot supply power, and require a power supply for the external device. The related eSATAp (but mechanically incompatible, sometimes called eSATA/USB) connector adds power to an external SATA connection, so that an additional power supply is not needed.

few new computers have dedicated external SATA (eSATA) connectors, with USB3 dominating and USB3 Type C, often with the Thunderbolt alternate mode, starting to replace the earlier USB connectors. Still sometimes present are single ports supporting both USB3 and eSATA.

Desktop computers without a built-in eSATA interface can install an eSATA host bus adapter (HBA); if the motherboard supports SATA, an externally available eSATA connector can be added. Notebook computers with the now rare Cardbus or ExpressCard could add an eSATA HBA. With passive adapters, the maximum cable length is reduced to 1 m due to the absence of compliant eSATA signal-levels.

eSATAp

eSATAp stands for powered eSATA. It is also known as Power over eSATA, Power eSATA, eSATA/USB Combo, or eSATA USB Hybrid Port (EUHP). An eSATAp port combines the four pins of the USB 2.0 (or earlier) port, the seven pins of the eSATA port, and optionally two 12 V power pins. Both SATA traffic and device power are integrated in a single cable, as is the case with USB but not eSATA. The 5 V power is provided through two USB pins, while the 12 V power may optionally be provided. Typically desktop, but not notebook, computers provide 12 V power, so can power devices requiring this voltage, typically 3.5-inch disk and CD/DVD drives, in addition to 5 V devices such as 2.5-inch drives.

Both USB and eSATA devices can be used with an eSATAp port, when plugged in with a USB or eSATA cable, respectively. An eSATA device cannot be powered via an eSATAp cable, but a special cable can make both SATA or eSATA and power connectors available from an eSATAp port.

An eSATAp connector can be built into a computer with internal SATA and USB, by fitting a bracket with connections for internal SATA, USB, and power connectors and an externally accessible eSATAp port. Though eSATAp connectors have been built into several devices, manufacturers do not refer to an official standard.

Pre-standard implementations

 * Prior to the final eSATA 6 Gbit/s specification many add-on cards and some motherboards advertised eSATA 6 Gbit/s support because they had 6 Gbit/s SATA 3.0 controllers for internal-only solutions. Those implementations are non-standard, and eSATA 6 Gbit/s requirements were ratified in the July 18, 2011 SATA 3.1 specification. Some products might not be fully eSATA 6 Gbit/s compliant.

Mini-SATA (mSATA)
Mini-SATA (abbreviated as mSATA), which is distinct from the micro connector, was announced by the Serial ATA International Organization on September 21, 2009. Applications include netbooks, laptops and other devices that require a solid-state drive in a small footprint.

The physical dimensions of the mSATA connector are identical to those of the PCI Express Mini Card interface, but the interfaces are electrically incompatible; the data signals (TX±/RX± SATA, PETn0 PETp0 PERn0 PERp0 PCI Express) need a connection to the SATA host controller instead of the PCI Express host controller.

The M.2 specification has superseded both mSATA and mini-PCIe.

SFF-8784 connector
Slim 2.5-inch SATA devices, 5 mm in height, use the twenty-pin SFF-8784 edge connector to save space. By combining the data signals and power lines into a slim connector that effectively enables direct connection to the device's printed circuit board (PCB) without additional space-consuming connectors, SFF-8784 allows further internal layout compaction for portable devices such as ultrabooks.

Pins 1 to 10 are on the connector's bottom side, while pins 11 to 20 are on the top side.

SATA Express

SATA Express, initially standardized in the SATA 3.2 specification, is an interface that supports either SATA or PCI Express storage devices. The host connector is backward compatible with the standard 3.5-inch SATA data connector, allowing up to two legacy SATA devices to connect. At the same time, the host connector provides up to two PCI Express 3.0 lanes as a pure PCI Express connection to the storage device, allowing bandwidths of up to 2 GB/s.

Instead of the otherwise usual approach of doubling the native speed of the SATA interface, PCI Express was selected for achieving data transfer speeds greater than 6 Gbit/s. It was concluded that doubling the native SATA speed would take too much time, too many changes would be required to the SATA standard, and would result in a much greater power consumption when compared to the existing PCI Express bus.

In addition to supporting legacy Advanced Host Controller Interface (AHCI), SATA Express also makes it possible for NVM Express (NVMe) to be used as the logical device interface for connected PCI Express storage devices.

As M.2 form factor, described below, achieved much larger popularity, SATA Express is considered as a failed standard and dedicated ports quickly disappeared from motherboards.

M.2 (NGFF)

M.2, formerly known as the Next Generation Form Factor (NGFF), is a specification for computer expansion cards and associated connectors. It replaces the mSATA standard, which uses the PCI Express Mini Card physical layout. Having a smaller and more flexible physical specification, together with more advanced features, the M.2 is more suitable for solid-state storage applications in general, especially when used in small devices such as ultrabooks or tablets.

The M.2 standard is designed as a revision and improvement to the mSATA standard, so that larger printed circuit boards (PCBs) can be manufactured. While mSATA took advantage of the existing PCI Express Mini Card form factor and connector, M.2 has been designed to maximize usage of the card space, while minimizing the footprint.

Supported host controller interfaces and internally provided ports are a superset to those defined by the SATA Express interface. Essentially, the M.2 standard is a small form factor implementation of the SATA Express interface, with the addition of an internal USB 3.0 port.

U.2 (SFF-8639)
U.2, formerly known as SFF-8639. Like M.2, it carries a PCI Express electrical signal, however U.2 uses a PCIe 3.0 ×4 link providing a higher bandwidth of 32 Gbit/s in each direction. In order to provide maximum backward compatibility the U.2 connector also supports SATA and multi-path SAS.

Topology

SATA uses a point-to-point architecture. The physical connection between a controller and a storage device is not shared among other controllers and storage devices. SATA defines multipliers, which allows a single SATA controller port to drive up to fifteen storage devices. The multiplier performs the function of a hub; the controller and each storage device is connected to the hub. This is conceptually similar to SAS expanders.

PC systems have SATA controllers built into the motherboard, typically featuring two to eight ports. Additional ports can be installed through add-in SATA host adapters (available in variety of bus-interfaces: USB, PCI, PCIe).

SATA and PATA
At the hardware interface level, SATA and PATA (Parallel AT Attachment) devices are completely incompatible: they cannot be interconnected without an adapter.

At the application level, SATA devices can be specified to look and act like PATA devices.

Many motherboards offer a "Legacy Mode" option, which makes SATA drives appear to the OS like PATA drives on a standard controller. This Legacy Mode eases OS installation by not requiring that a specific driver be loaded during setup, but sacrifices support for some (vendor specific) features of SATA. Legacy Mode often if not always disables some of the boards' PATA or SATA ports, since the standard PATA controller interface supports only four drives. (Often, which ports are disabled is configurable.)

The common heritage of the ATA command set has enabled the proliferation of low-cost PATA to SATA bridge chips. Bridge chips were widely used on PATA drives (before the completion of native SATA drives) as well in standalone converters. When attached to a PATA drive, a device-side converter allows the PATA drive to function as a SATA drive. Host-side converters allow a motherboard PATA port to connect to a SATA drive.

The market has produced powered enclosures for both PATA and SATA drives that interface to the PC through USB, Firewire or eSATA, with the restrictions noted above. PCI cards with a SATA connector exist that allow SATA drives to connect to legacy systems without SATA connectors.

SATA 1.5 Gbit/s and SATA 3 Gbit/s
The designers of SATA standard as an overall goal aimed for backward and forward compatibility with future revisions of the SATA standard. To prevent interoperability problems that could occur when next generation SATA drives are installed on motherboards with standard legacy SATA 1.5 Gbit/s host controllers, many manufacturers have made it easy to switch those newer drives to the previous standard's mode. Examples of such provisions include:
 * Seagate/Maxtor has added a user-accessible jumper-switch, known as the "force 150", to enable the drive switch between forced 1.5 Gbit/s and 1.5/3 Gbit/s negotiated operation.
 * Western Digital uses a jumper setting called OPT1 enabled to force 1.5 Gbit/s data transfer speed (OPT1 is enabled by putting the jumper on pins 5 and 6).
 * Samsung drives can be forced to 1.5 Gbit/s mode using software that may be downloaded from the manufacturer's website. Configuring some Samsung drives in this manner requires the temporary use of a SATA-2 (SATA 3.0 Gbit/s) controller while programming the drive.

The "force 150" switch (or equivalent) is also useful for attaching SATA 3 Gbit/s hard drives to SATA controllers on PCI cards, since many of these controllers (such as the Silicon Image chips) run at 3 Gbit/s, even though the PCI bus cannot reach 1.5 Gbit/s speeds. This can cause data corruption in operating systems that do not specifically test for this condition and limit the disk transfer speed.

SATA 3 Gbit/s and SATA 6 Gbit/s
SATA 3 Gbit/s and SATA 6 Gbit/s are compatible with each other. Most devices that are only SATA 3 Gbit/s can connect with devices that are SATA 6 Gbit/s, and vice versa, though SATA 3 Gbit/s devices connect with SATA 6 Gbit/s devices only at the slower 3 Gbit/s speed.

SATA 1.5 Gbit/s and SATA 6 Gbit/s
SATA 1.5 Gbit/s and SATA 6 Gbit/s are compatible with each other. Most devices that are only SATA 1.5 Gbit/s can connect with devices that are SATA 6 Gbit/s, and vice versa, though SATA 1.5 Gbit/s devices only connect with SATA 6 Gbit/s devices at the slower 1.5 Gbit/s speed.

SATA and SCSI
Parallel SCSI uses a more complex bus than SATA, usually resulting in higher manufacturing costs. SCSI buses also allow connection of several drives on one shared channel, whereas SATA allows one drive per channel, unless using a port multiplier. Serial Attached SCSI uses the same physical interconnects as SATA, and most SAS HBAs also support 3 and 6 Gbit/s SATA devices (an HBA requires support for Serial ATA Tunneling Protocol).

SATA 3 Gbit/s theoretically offers a maximum bandwidth of 300 MB/s per device, which is only slightly lower than the rated speed for SCSI Ultra 320 with a maximum of 320 MB/s total for all devices on a bus. SCSI drives provide greater sustained throughput than multiple SATA drives connected via a simple (i.e., command-based) port multiplier because of disconnect-reconnect and aggregating performance. In general, SATA devices link compatibly to SAS enclosures and adapters, whereas SCSI devices cannot be directly connected to a SATA bus.

SCSI, SAS, and fibre-channel (FC) drives are more expensive than SATA, so they are used in servers and disk arrays where the better performance justifies the additional cost. Inexpensive ATA and SATA drives evolved in the home-computer market, hence there is a view that they are less reliable. As those two worlds overlapped, the subject of reliability became somewhat controversial. Note that, in general, the failure rate of a disk drive is related to the quality of its heads, platters and supporting manufacturing processes, not to its interface.

Use of serial ATA in the business market increased from 22% in 2006 to 28% in 2008.

Comparison with other buses
SCSI-3 devices with SCA-2 connectors are designed for hot swapping. Many server and RAID systems provide hardware support for transparent hot swapping. The designers of the SCSI standard prior to SCA-2 connectors did not target hot swapping, but in practice, most RAID implementations support hot swapping of hard disks.

title: SATA