AT Attachment

(A-T-A)

The IDE drive specification started development in 1986 by a combination of a Control Data Corporation division called Imprimus, Western Digital, and Compaq Computer (Imprimus supplied hard drives, Western Digital the controller, and Compaq implemented it in systems). It was standardized around 1988 and sent to ANSI for ratification November 1990. The IDE specification provides a way to make disk drive "attachments" to the IBM PC/AT computer architecture. More recent specifications (ATA-2, ATA-3, and ATA-4) describe the EIDE connection. ATA details power and data signals between the drive and integrated drive controller and the computer's motherboard. Two drives (master and slave) are supported. The ATA specification allows the drive to connect directly to the ISA bus on the computer.

More Information

• ATA FAQ
• Hard Disk Interface Tutorial