Parallel ATA/IDE connector interface with 40 pins
ATA and IDE synonymously refer to the ANSI standard for sending data between a storage device with integrated controller electronics and the motherboard. In wider terminology, IDE can refer to the pre-ATA-2 standards to differentiate from "Enhanced IDE."
ATA/IDE standard
T13, a committee of the INCITS (InterNational Committee for Information Technology Standards) is responsible for the "Advanced Technology Attachment/Integrated Drive Electronics" standard.
Alternative Standards
These include Fibre Channel, Firewire IEEE 1304, USB and RAID.
Wider Terminology
ATA/IDE has seen several major enhancements, such as the introduction of the smaller serial connector as an alternative to the parallel bus. The terms "IDE," "EIDE" and "ATA" have been loosely used by manufacturers in commercial contexts to differentiate between, respectively, the pre-ATA-2, ATA-2/3 and post-ATA-2 standards.
These are the standards of ATA/IDE, and their commercial names (in parentheses). Note that ATAPI (ATA Packet Interface) was developed for optical storage devices.
Parallel ATA since 1986:
pre-ANSI (IDE)
ATA-1 (ATA, IDE)
ATA-2 (Enhanced-IDE, Fast ATA, FAST IDE, Ultra ATA)
ATA-3 (Enhanced-IDE)
ATA/ATAPI-4 (ATA-4, Ultra ATA/33)
ATA/ATAPI-5 (ATA-5, Ultra ATA/66)
ATA/ATAPI-6 (ATA-6, Ultra ATA/100)
ATA/ATAPI-7 (ATA-7, Ultra ATA/133)
ATA/ATAPI-8 (ATA-8)
Serial ATA (since 2002):
Serial ATA (SATA)
Serial ATA II (SATA II)
Serial ATA III (SATA III)
External Serial ATA (eSATA)
Tags: Serial SATA, SATA Serial, SATA Serial SATA, Serial SATA Serial