SATA Protocol – Serial ATA – 1

This set of multiple choice SAN storage questions and answers focuses on SATA protocol standards.

1. SATA initially came as a evolution/improvement over
a) IDE
b) Fiber Channel
c) SAS
d) SCSI

2. What is the BUS architecture used by SATA?
a) Parallel
b) Serial
c) Depends on the chipset used
d) None of the mentioned

3. Maximum number of SATA devices that can be connected through SATA is
a) 1
b) 5
c) 8
d) 15

4. What is the maximum distance that you can connect through a SATA?
a) 1 meter
b) 1 kilometers
c) 100 kilometers’ with repeaters
d) 5 meters

5. What are the advantages of SATA over ATA?
a) Higher speeds
b) Lesser complexity with respect to power and cabling requirements
c) Hot Swapping
d) All of the mentioned

6. What is the maximum number of commands that you can queue when you use Native Command Queuing.
a) 32
b) 16
c) 8
d) 4

7. NCQ gives best improvement in performance when the access from the host is
a) Sequential
b) Random
c) Both Sequential and Random
d) All of the mentioned

8. With Port Multiplier you can increase the number of devices to
a) 2
b) 4
c) 8
d) 15

9. In Command Based switching which of the following is not true
a) Host can issue only one command to one drive at a time
b) Is ideal when expansion of capacity is more important than drive performance
c) The host issues and completes commands to the drives simultaneously
d) Might not take advantage of the complete speed of the link