ATA

The original standard for connecting storage devices (hard drives, CD/DVD drives, etc.) to a computer, first introduced in the 1980s. Also known as:

• IDE (Integrated Drive Electronics)
• PATA (Parallel ATA) – the common name after SATA appeared

Key characteristics:

• Uses a wide 40-pin (or 80-pin) ribbon cable
• Sends data in parallel (multiple bits at once over many wires)
• Maximum theoretical speed progressed from ~8 MB/s in the beginning up to 133 MB/s (Ultra ATA/133) in its final versions
• One cable typically supports two devices (master/slave configuration)

ATA/PATA is the old, wide, flat, gray ribbon cable you used to see inside every desktop PC before around 2005–2010. It was first replaced by SATA (smaller, faster cables) and later by NVMe (no cables at all – direct PCIe slot connection) for modern high-speed SSDs.

Today, you only encounter ATA/PATA in very old computers or when dealing with vintage hardware.