Advanced Technology Attachment (ATA) is a standard interface for connecting storage devices such as hard disks and CD-ROM drives inside personal computers.
The standard is maintained by X3/INCITS committee T13. Many synonyms and near-synonyms for ATA exist, including abbreviations such as IDE and ATAPI. Also, with the market introduction of Serial ATA in 2003, the original ATA was retroactively renamed Parallel ATA (PATA).
In line with the original naming, this article covers only Parallel ATA.
Parallel ATA standards allow cable lengths up to only 18 inches (46 centimetres) although cables up to 36 inches (91 cm) can be readily purchased. Because of this length limit, the technology normally appears as an internal computer storage interface. It provides the most common and the least expensive interface for this application.
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Advanced Technology Attachment (ATA) is a standard interface for connecting storage devices such as hard disks and CD-ROM drives inside personal computers.
The standard is maintained by X3/INCITS committee T13. Many synonyms and near-synonyms for ATA exist, including abbreviations such as IDE and ATAPI. Also, with the market introduction of Serial ATA in 2003, the original ATA was retroactively renamed Parallel ATA (PATA).
In line with the original naming, this article covers only Parallel ATA.
Parallel ATA standards allow cable lengths up to only 18 inches (46 centimetres) although cables up to 36 inches (91 cm) can be readily purchased. Because of this length limit, the technology normally appears as an internal computer storage interface. It provides the most common and the least expensive interface for this application.
a computer bus primarily designed for transfer of data between a computer and storage devices (like hard disk drives or optical drives).
The main benefits are thinner cables that let air cooling work more efficiently, faster transfers, ability to remove or add devices while operating (hot swapping), and more reliable operation with tighter data integrity checks than the older Parallel ATA interface.
It was designed as a successor to the legacy Advanced Technology Attachment standard (ATA), and is expected to eventually replace the older technology (retroactively renamed Parallel ATA or PATA). Serial ATA adapters and devices communicate over a high-speed serial cable.
