Full Form of ATA
Advanced Technology Attachment
ATA Full Form is Advanced Technology Attachment. ATA is a standard interface implementation that helps to connect storage devices to the computers. The controller of the related disk drive is effectively integrated into this implementation. It is also recognized as IDE ( Integrated Drive Electronics ). It was later renamed as PATA ( Parallel ATA ) in 2003.
ATA was designed in 1986 and the first version was produced by the company named Western Digital. It uses 40 pins, and 40 or 80 wires which are ribbon cables. It runs on a parallel protocol. The original version had a bit-rate of 16 MB/s. It uses the three PIO ( Programme Input / Output) modes namely 0, 1, and 2.Maximum two devices can be connected by ATA.
One of these devices is called the master device, and the other is recognized as the slave device. ATA cannot function externally. Because of its limitations, created by the use of short-length ribbon cables, ATA is generally recognized as an internal interface for storage devices. There are several versions of ATA which are designed by the SFF ( Small Form Factor ) committee. ATA-2, ATA-3, Ultra ATA, ATA/66, and ATA/100 — these are the later versions of ATA.
These versions have better bit-rate of 33, 66, 100, and 133 MB/s. These also make use of faster and better PIO modes. SATA has replaced ATA in the modern and newer systems. ATA basically enables the mother board to get internally connected with hard disks or CD-ROMs and perform certain basic input, output operations.