The SATA Express connector used on the host side is backward compatible with the standard SATA data connector, while it provides two PCI Express lanes as a pure PCI Express connection to the storage device.
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10 Facts About SATA Express
2.
Designers of the SATA interface concluded that doubling the native SATA speed would take too much time to catch up with the advancements in solid-state drive technology, would require too many changes to the SATA standard, and would result in a much greater power consumption compared with the existing PCI Express bus.
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3.
SATA Express has been selected as the interface for gradually more adopted solid-state drives, but the need for a faster interface became apparent as the speed of SSDs and hybrid drives increased over time.
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5.
SRIS eliminates the need for complex and costly shielding on SATA Express cables required for transmitting PCI Express synchronization signals, by providing a separate clock generator on the storage device with additional support from the motherboard firmware.
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6.
In May 2014, Intel Z97 and H97 chipsets became available, bringing support for both SATA Express and M 2, which is a specification for flash-based storage devices in form of internally mounted computer expansion cards.
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7.
Not many storage devices utilizing the SATA Express interface were released for consumers, and SATA Express ports quickly disappeared from new motherboards.
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8.
Connectors used for SATA Express were selected specifically to ensure backward compatibility with legacy SATA devices where possible, without the need for additional adapters or converters.
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9.
Above listed SATA Express connectors provide only two PCI Express lanes, as the result of overall design focusing on a rapid low-cost platform transition.
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10.
However, because NVMe is far more efficient than AHCI when used with PCI Express SSDs, SATA Express interface is unable to deliver its maximum performance when AHCI is used to access PCI Express storage devices; see above for more details.
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