I've added a new hard-disk to my laptop today. Now i wanted to compare the information available over the harddisk. So installed a tool called 'CristalDiskInfo'. A property from the information called 'Standard' is different at the new harddisk.

At the first harddisk it's: ATA8-ACS | ATA8-ACS version 4
And the 2nd: ACS-2 | ATA8-ACS version 6

1. What does this 'standard' mean?
2. Which one is better?
3. Is there an performance difference?
4. Is there a list/table where to compare them? I can't find anything.

Screenshots first harddisk:

Screenshot 2nd harddisk:

2

2 Answers

At the very basics, ATA means "AT Attachment" where AT references the IBM PC/AT with a 6 MHz 80286 processor introduced 1984.

Since then the ATA standard is updated continously to adopt high drive capacity and faster tranfer rates. Parallel-ATA uses 40 wire ribbon cable, while actual Serial-ATA (SATA) devices use thinner, 8 wire cables.

The actual ATA-Standard is the ATA8, you can find the difference between the ATA versions under

ACS means AT Command Set, which describes how the computer commands the drive to save or retrieve data.

1

As the accepted answer has already satisfactorily provided a good source for the OP to follow up on nearly 8 years ago, I thought I would respond to the questions directly. In part because the accepted answer's final link to the AT Command Set is erroneous.

1. What does this 'standard' mean?

The standards refer to the ATA or ATAPI command sets. These correspond with the older parallel ATA all the way up to the latest serial ATA (SATA) commands. The command sets are the language used for negotiating connections between the hardware interfaces on the controller (typically on a motherboard) and the device (such as an SSD). Please note that "ACS" is "ATA/ATAPI Command Set", not "AT Command Set". The former covers storage interfaces, the latter covers modem communications.

2. Which one is better?

Generally the newer the command set, the more advanced / "better" features it provides. ATA8 precedes ACS-2, so the latter is technically better.

3. Is there an performance difference?

As with (2), you could debate the electrical and electronic properties of the hardware, but in terms of feature sets -- the newer standards support more advanced/optimized commands and thus offer superior performance over the older standards they replace.

4. Is there a list/table where to compare them? I can't find anything.

I have not located a definitive list, however the command sets are well documented and INCITS (T13) is a good place to start. You can look up all the standards documentation there:

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