About SATA hard drives

hi! Yesterday i was checking the Intel's website when i saw a new Hard Disk technology called "SATA" in Pentium 4 environment. There it was written that this type of H D D having new technolgy are much better than old ones i-e IDE drives. But i couldn't find what's that technology and what's the difference in IDE and SATA hard disks. Also anyone who is using the SATA hard drives, will plz tell me if SATA disks have more access speed or in other words SATA disks are better than IDE disks or not? If yes then why. Hope for some good response.

These two links should tell you what you want to know about Sata Hd's
http://www.furioustech.com/hitachiSATA/index.php
http://www6.tomshardware.com/storage/20030501/

Damn...You seen the difference in write and read in The Maxtor HD and the Hitachi HD
On the 1st link DeadAddict gave....the Hitachi HD is so much better, the write speed is like 5 or 6 times as much than the Maxtor...the Hitachi is worth buying...anyone know the price yet?
peace