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ATA

ATA

AT Attachment. A popular 16-bit interface standard that extends the ISA bus of the IBM PC-AT to attach peripherals;. It has been developed through a number of generations.

The original ATA specification defined what was commonly known as Integrated Drive Electronics (IDE). Later versions defined EIDE and then higher speed interfaces.

ATA Version	Also known as	Bus width	Maximum dData rate	Notes
ATA-1	IDE	8 or 16 bit	8.3MB/sec	40 pin ribbon cable. Maximum of two devices.
ATA-2	EIDE Fast ATA Fast IDE	8 or 16 bit	16.6MB/sec	Maximum number of devices increased to four.
ATA-3		16 bit	16MB/sec	CRC added.
ATA-4	Ulta-ATA/33	16 bit	33MB/sec
ATA-5	Ulta-ATA/66	16 bit	66MB/sec	80 pin ribbon cable, 40 pin connector (extra cables for noise reduction). These cables typically have three connectors. The blue connector should be plugged into the mother board, the grey (middle) connector to any slave device and the grey (end) connector to the master device.
ATA-6	Ultra-ATA/100	16 bit	100MB/sec
ATA-7	Ultra-ATA/133	16 bit	130MB/sec

ATA is but is now generally referred to as PATA to distinguish it from SATA. SATA uses a totally different interface from PATA and is seen as its natural successor.

Relevant links:

www.interfacebus.com/Design_Connector_IDE.html - ATA Bus Description with IDE Pin Out and Signal Names. Article also covers the different generations of ATA.

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