▷ Msata what it is and what it is for

Storage systems have evolved a lot in recent times. Connectors such as SATA, mSATA and SATA Express have been used to a greater or lesser extent until today. SATA is already a connection standard that has been in our lives for quite some time, specifically since 2001 and increasingly, it is being replaced by the new M.2 or PIE Express with the NVMe protocol. This is why today we will review the standard, specifically we will see what the mSATA connector is and what it is used for.

Index of contents

Without a doubt, the SATA serial data transfer standard brought many innovations with respect to the classic PATA interface, which all or almost all of us will remember for those tremendous 80-wire connectors and for the insufferable task of configuring the devices in master or slave.

But finally this ended and we went to the world of serial connection, typical of the USB interface. Thanks to it, it was possible to considerably increase the data transfer speed, reaching current figures of 600 MB / s on mechanical hard drives and SSDs. We will review SATA and its interface oriented to mSATA notebooks and we will see the difference between it and a Mini PCIe.

SATA connection interfaces

To better position ourselves, let's see what types of SATA connections we can find. There are different types of SATA connectors, among which is the one that we will see a little more in detail today, the mSATA. Basically the types of SATA connectors that we find in the market are the following:

• SATA connector: This is the typical and traditional “ Wafer ” type data connection cable. It is made up of 7 conductors under the same encapsulation, normally rectangular. The connector is 8mm wide and has a 90 degree termination at one end to identify the correct male and female connector position. This connector can have a maximum length of 1 m. We can find it in practically all 2.5 "and 3.5" mechanical hard drives, in addition to 2.5 "SSDs. ESATA connector: this connection is characterized by being an external type, similar to that of a USB, and aimed at connecting external hard drives that have this interface. It is quite little used nowadays, since USB 3.0 considerably exceeds 115 MB / s of this interface. SATA Express: This interface is an evolution of SATA capable of working with both SATA hard drives and PCI-Express drives. It has its own interface and is capable of reaching 16 Gb / s or what is the same, 1.97 GB / s

Check our article that explains more in detail what SATA Express is

MSATA interface

The Mini-SATA interface or better known as mSATA, is a variant of a low-profile Mini PCI Express type connection, although not necessarily electrically compatible.

Initially SATA International Organization, intended that this interface was the standard of the new laptops of the time, precisely because it is a small connector and aesthetically similar to the Mini PCI Express. In addition, it was thought for SSD storage units of sizes between 2.5 and 1.8 " typical of ultrabooks. But due in large part to the appearance of the M.2 connector, manufacturers opted for this interface and mSATA was displaced.

The dimensions of an mSATA slot are 30 x 50.95 mm in full size and 30 x 50.95 mm in medium size, and it is divided into two different size connection areas with 8 and 18 pins per side respectively.

Currently only some laptops have this type of mSATA connection in their hardware. Specifically, the devices that use the Intel Sandy Bridge processor architecture, together with the Huron River platform. We can identify them as the CPUs that mount in a socket LGA 2011, LGA 1155 and Socket G2.

An example of this are some Lenovo laptops from back in 2011 and others, which have support for mSATA SSD cards in the WWAN slot. It is also an interface that has been used by computers such as the Apple MacBook Air or the Dell mini9 and mini8, which have this type of interface for SSD drives.

This commented variant uses a series of reserved pins to implement the pass through the SATA interface. This allows us to make SSDs of this type incompatible with the true implementations of Mini PCI Express, which is a physically identical connector but uses a different electrical configuration.

There are few devices on the market with mSATA SSD, so it is practically out of use. A typical example that has this interface is the Samsung SUV500MS, which is available in this mSATA configuration. In medium format for notebooks.

The speed at which mSATA works is 1.5 Gb / s and in other cases 3.0 Gb / s, typical SATA speeds, in any case. And as we have said, it is used for notebooks. In the market there are many converters from mSATA to other interfaces such as SATA or USB.

mSATA is not mPCIe

Although they look identical, they are two different interfaces and work completely differently. Both electrically and in data transmission protocols.

mPCIe consists of the reduced size version of the PCI connection standard and is intended for use on notebook computers. In fact, the electrical signals used in mPCIe are exactly the same as those used in desktop PCIe slots. The bus it uses is 32 bits at a voltage of 3.3 V. The data transfer rate is 533 MB / s. precisely this type of slot is widely used to install Wi-Fi network cards

The size is exactly the same as we have commented for the mSATA slots so they are perfectly confused, and even a device with this interface fits perfectly in both types of slots.

With this we want to make it clear that both slots are confusing at first glance, although if we look closely at the screen printing that is near this connector on the motherboard, we will quickly leave doubts. We can also consult the manual of our motherboard to identify these types of connections better.

SATA, past, present and future?

The SATA standard has created over the years different types of connection interfaces, each one oriented for specific purposes. Of course, almost all have the same characteristics of working in series, providing hot plugging and transfer rates of up to 600 MB / s, except SATA Express, which is capable of reaching 1.97 GB / s, a figure considerably higher.

With solutions like mSATA or SATA Express the standard wanted to find new possibilities in terms of compatibility, speed and support, although this has not been exactly what has happened. Due to the limitations of SATA Express and the emergence of other better solutions, mSATA is practically not used anywhere today.

With the appearance of the great competitor of SATA SSD in solid drives, the M.2 connector that far exceeds the performance of our classic interface, it is very possible that in 2 or 3 years we will find only solid state hard drives on the market. of this type. So it is a matter of time that new technologies displace this interface.

Without a doubt, if we decide to buy a hard drive with a large storage capacity right now, in 2018, we will surely need to go directly to the SATA interface. And we believe that this will continue to be the case not in the next year, but in several, since today, the units in solid state. Despite being very fast, they have an important handicap, and that is that their life cycle is relatively short, much more than mechanical hard drives. Furthermore, they are also considerably more expensive, especially if we go to M.2 units. And to this we must add that it is not yet feasible to reach the sizes of the mechanical discs without spending a pasture on one of them.

In short, if we want large capacities and cheap disks, we have SATA for a while friends. But don't look for an mSATA because you won't find it almost certain.

So far our knowledge and opinion about mSATA comes, we hope that it has been useful to you, at least to know about its existence.

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Have you had or do you have any mSATA connectors on your computer? Tell us what you think about the SATA standard and its competitors. How long do you think it will last in the market?