Wikipedia
Parallel ATA (PATA), originally AT Attachment, also known as ATA or IDE is standard interface for IBM computers It was first developed by Western Digital and Compaq in 1986 for compatible hard drives and CD or DVD drives The connection is used for storage devices such as hard disk drives, floppy disk drives, and optical disc drives in computers The standard is maintained by the X3/INCITS committee It uses the underlying AT Attachment (ATA) and AT Attachment Packet Interface (ATAPI) standards The Parallel ATA standard is the result of a long history of incremental technical development, which began with the original AT Attachment interface, developed for use in early PC AT equipment
Parallel_ATA - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia