storage, hardware, standard (ATA, AT Attachment or
"Integrated Drive Electronics", IDE) A
disk drive interface
deals with the power and data signal interfaces between the
The ATA "bus" only supports two devices - master and slave.
ATA drives may in fact use any physical interface the
manufacturer desires, so long as an embedded translator is
included with the proper ATA interface. ATA "controllers" are
actually direct connections to the ISA bus.
Originally called IDE, the ATA interface was invented by
Compaq around 1986, and was developed with the help of
1988; the first draft appeared in March 1989, and a finished
version was sent to
ANSI group X3T10 (who named it "Advanced
Technology Attachment" (ATA)) for ratification in November
1990.
(1998-10-08)