ATA(short for AT Attachment), also known as IDE, is commonly used as a synonym for PATA(parallel ATA). Its successor is SATA(serial ATA), which is currently in use as a standard. Because ATA/IDE was originally developed for and limited to hard drives, an extended protocol called ATAPI (ATA Packet Interface) has been introduced which wraps SCSI commands in ATA packets to connect to a variety of other devices like CD/DVD-Drives.
