The IDE Interface

• Originally designed by Western Digital (~1986)
• Was used in the cheaper PC market.
• The controller is part of the disk drive
• So the "controller" on the host was a simple bridge (pass-through)
• The ATA protocol was sector-based with simple read and write commands.
  • which was different then its predecessors (ST-506 and ESDI).
• The max cable length was short
  • So it was used for internal storage.

Originally written by guy keren