The Serial ATA (SATA) interface provides several advantages over the traditional (parallel) ATA interface. The primary advantages include: easy installation and configuration with true Plug-and-Play connectivity. It is not necessary to set any jumpers or other configuration options. Thinner and more flexible cabling for improved enclosure airflow and ease of installation. Scalability to higher performance levels.

In addition, SATA makes the transition from parallel ATA easy by providing legacy software support. SATA was designed to allow users to install a SATA host adapter and SATA disk drive in the current system and expect all of the existing applications to work as normal.

The SATA interface connects each disk drive in a point-to-point configuration with the SATA host adapter. There is no master/slave relationship with SATA devices like there is with parallel ATA. If two drives are attached on one SATA host adapter, the host operating system views the two devices as if they were both "masters" on two separate ports. This essentially means both drives behave as if they are Device 0 (master) devices.

The SATA host adapter and drive share the function of emulating parallel ATA device behavior to provide backward compatibility with existing host systems and software. The Command and Control Block registers, PIO and DMA data transfers, resets, and interrupts are all emulated.