The set of AT Attachment standards consists of this standard and the ATA implementation standards described in AT Attachment - 8 ATA/ATAPI Architecture Model (ATA8-AAM).

This standard defines the ATA Serial ATA transport by:

a) referencing the Serial ATA specifications published by the SATA-IO organization; and

b) documenting the transport dependent components found in the ATA8 family of standards.

SATA 2.6 and SATA 3.0 specify the following:

a) the mapping of ACS-2 command blocks to SATA 3.0 FIS fields;

b) the physical interconnection between Serial ATA host and Serial ATA storage device(s), including connectors and cables;

c) the electrical characteristics of the interconnecting signals; and

d) the logical characteristics of the interconnecting signals.

This standard specifies relationships between this standard and multiple versions of SATA. This standard specifies:

a) the mapping of ACS-2 command fields, normal returns, and error returns to SATA 2.6 and SATA 3.0 FIS fields;

b) ACS-2 transport specific fields; and

c) ATA8-AAM transport specific components.