Advanced Technology Adaptor (ATA)
The first microcomputers manufactured by IBM were called "Advanced Technology" personal computers, or ATs. The AT Adaptopr connects a disk drive with an integrated drive controller to the computer's system bus. Integrated Drive Electronics (IDE) is a marketing term created for disk drives with the ATA controller logic built into the drive and it's interface to the system bus. Previous to ATA/IDE, computer systems used a separate controller card to manage access the drives. This controller card no longer exists as the control logic is now integrated into drives.
The ATA interface was, for many years a 16-bit parallel technology, but in 2000 a new technology was developed called Serial ATA (SATA). SATA was introduced in desktop computers around 2003 and I first started seeing SATA in laptop computers around 2005. Being serial, the SATA interface passes 1 bit at a time across the PATA bus. The SATA cables require fewer wires and are smaller and thinner than the parallel interface cables.
Both SATA and PATA are compatible with any software or operating system that uses the ATA standard.
