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ATA Last modified: Thursday, December 01, 2005

(1) Short for Advanced Technology Attachment, a disk drive implementation that integrates the controller on the disk drive itself. There are several versions of ATA, all developed by the Small Form Factor (SFF) Committee: ATA: Known also as IDE, supports one or two hard drives, a 16-bit interface and PIO modes 0, 1 and 2. ATA-2: Supports faster PIO modes (3 and 4) and multiword DMA modes (1 and 2). Also supports logical block addressing (LBA) and block transfers. ATA-2 is marketed as Fast ATA and Enhanced IDE (EIDE). ATA-3: Minor revision to ATA-2. Ultra-ATA: Also called Ultra-DMA, ATA-33, and DMA-33, supports multiword DMA mode 3 running at 33 MBps. ATA/66: A version of ATA proposed by Quantum Corporation, and supported by Intel, that doubles ATA's throughput to 66 MBps. ATA/100: An updated version of ATA/66 that increases data transfer rates to 100 MBps. ATA also is called Parallel ATA. Contrast with Serial ATA. (2) Short for Analog Telephone Adapter

Hard Disk Interfaces and Configuration  Describes the different major interface standards currently used by hard disks (and other devices). Provides sections about the IDE/ATA and SCSI interfaces. This page is from "The PC Guide." Considerations before buying an ATA-2/EIDE controller Provides information on features to consider before buying a Fast AT Attachment (ATA)/EIDE interface. Integrated Drive Electronics / AT Attachment Interface Describes IDE/ATA standards and features, transfer modes and protocols, and configuration and cabling. This page is from "The PC Guide." Enhanced IDE, Fast ATA, and Fast ATA-2 FAQ This pages provides links to a two part FAQ addressing issues surrounding Enhanced IDE, ATA-2, ATAPI and Enhanced BIOSes. It includes practical questions, background information and lists of net resources.