Wikipedia
Parallel ATA (PATA), originally AT Attachment, is an interface standard for the connection of 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 The ATA interface itself evolved in several stages from Western Digital's original Integrated Drive Electronics (IDE) interface
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