By PURPLELEC | 23 August 2023 | 0 Comments
Protocols and interfaces of various hard disks/hard disk enclosures
Because there are many types of hard disks, there are also many corresponding types of hard disk enclosures. For example, hard disk enclosures using desktop hard disks usually require an additional power supply, while hard disk enclosures using notebook hard disks usually do not need to wait.
Protocols and interfaces of various hard disks/hard disk enclosures
Upper layer protocol and transmission bus
AHCI, Advanced Host Controller Interface (English: Advanced Host Controller Interface, abbreviation: AHCI), is a technical standard developed by Intel, which allows software to communicate with the hardware mechanism of SATA storage devices, allowing SATA storage devices to activate advanced SATA features such as native instruction queuing and hot swapping.
NVM Express (NVMe), or Non-Volatile Memory Host Controller Interface Specification (English: Non Volatile Memory Host Controller Interface Specification, abbreviation: NVMHCIS), is a logical device interface specification. It is a bus transmission protocol specification based on the device logic interface similar to AHCI (equivalent to the application layer in the communication protocol)
Various transmission interfaces
Compared with the upper-layer protocol and transmission bus, we always have more contact with the interface form, and when we buy a hard disk box, we will first distinguish different transmission interfaces. Generally speaking, the SATA interface and the M.2 interface are different interfaces. morphological distinction.
① The SATA interface should be our most common interface form. Whether it is a mechanical hard disk or a solid-state hard disk, most of them use the SATA interface to connect to the motherboard.
SATA is the abbreviation of Serial ATA, that is, Serial ATA. Developed by the "Serial ATA Working Group" in November 2000. It is a computer bus whose main function is to transmit data between the motherboard and a large number of storage devices (such as hard disks and optical drives). The advantages.
The SATA interface has been developed to the third generation today, which is what we often call SATA3.0, and now SATA 2.0 or 1.0 interfaces are rarely seen, even if you see them, don’t worry, because SATA is forward compatible , their physical interfaces are the same, but the transmission speed will be different.
Now, the theoretical speed of SATA3.0 supports up to 6Gb/s, which is almost the ceiling of mechanical hard disk transmission, but for the popular solid-state hard disk, this speed has become a bottleneck, so more interfaces will appear in the future.
② Interface form between B Key (NGFF) of M.2 and M Key (NVMe) of M.2.
The M.2 interface is a new interface specification introduced by Intel to replace MSATA. In fact, for desktop desktop users, the SATA interface is enough to meet the needs of most users, but considering the storage needs of ultrabook users, Intel eagerly launched this new interface standard.
There are two types of M.2 interfaces: B key - NGFF, M key - NVMe.
If it uses the NGFF of the SATA bus, the interface is presented in the form of B Key, and the theoretical speed can reach up to 700MB/S. Of course, there are not many pure B Keys in the market, so M&B Key is the current mainstream.
For NVMe using the PCIe bus, the interface is in the form of M Key. Of course, M&B Key is also acceptable, and the theoretical maximum speed can reach 4GB/S.
There are 4 lengths of M.2 solid-state drives, namely: 42mm, 60mm, 80mm, and 110mm.
③ PCIe belongs to the desktop interface. According to the different bus bit width, there are several types: x1, x4, x8, and x16. There are several versions of PCIe 1.0, 2.0, 3.0, 4.0, and 5.0, and the transmission speed of different versions is different.
The Types of Hard Disk Enclosures
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