Storage Cables
(OBJ 3.4)
Storage Cables - connect storage devices to the computer’s motherboard, allowing data transfer between storage device and system
Thunderbolt
- Thunderbolt 1 and 2 use DP type connector
- Thunderbolt 3 and 4 use USB-C type connector
Lightning
SATA (Serial Advanced Technology Attachment)
- Standard method of connecting storage device to the motherboard inside a desktop
- SATA 7-pin Data Cable - transfers data only
- SATA 15-pin Power Connector - provides power
eSATA (External SATA) - same as SATA but used outside of the case to connect things like hard drives
SCSI (Small Computer Systems Interface) - legacy parallel bus connector that actually allowed multiple devices to be daisy chained together
- Narrow SCSI - supported up to 7 devices
- Wide SCSI - supported up to 15 devices
- High density cable uses 68 pins to carry data
- MOLEX Connector - provides power for the SCSI device
- SCA (Single Connector Attachment) - 80-pin connector provides both power and data into a single cable for specific types of SCSI devices that supported it
SAS (Serial Attached SCSI) - high performance data transfer technology used mainly in enterprise environments for connecting storage devices, like HDDs and SSDs, to servers and workstations
- Data transfer speeds up to 24 Gbps
- Full duplex communication and high scalability
- Backward compatible with other SATA drives
- Enterprise level of reliability with features like dual port architectures
- Designed for 24/7 operations
Key takeaways
In today’s world, most devices use USB or Thunderbolt for external storage and SATA for internal data transfers