All About "EIDE" and "ATA"

IDE, EIDE AND ATA

Short for Enhanced IDE, a newer version of the IDE mass storage device interface standard developed by Western Digital Corporation. It supports data rates of between 4 and 16.6 MBps, about three to four times faster than the old IDE standard. In addition, it can support mass storage devices of up to 8.4 gigabytes, whereas the old standard was limited to 528 MB. Because of its lower cost, enhanced EIDE has replaced SCSI in many areas.

EIDE is sometimes referred to as Fast ATA or Fast IDE, which is essentially the same standard, developed and promoted by Seagate Technologies. It is also sometimes called ATA-2.

There are four EIDE modes defined. The most common is Mode 4, which supports transfer rates of 16.6 MBps. There is also a new mode, called ATA-3 or Ultra ATA, that supports transfer rates of 33 MBps.

Enhanced IDE, Fast ATA, and Fast ATA-2 FAQ
http://members.aa.net/~obata/atafaq.htm

The difference between Enhanced IDE and SCSI
http://www.advansys.com/support/documents/whitepapers/wpeidescsi.htm

About Interfaces. EIDE, Ultra DMA and AGP
http://www.mkdata.dk/english/module5b.htm

Article on the performance of SCSI and EIDE hard drives
http://www.zdnet.com/pcmag/pclabs/report/r960702a.htm

Challenges for Enhanced IDE article from Seagate
http://www.seagate.com/support/disc/papers/eide.shtml

Magazine article on Enhanced IDE
http://istweb.syr.edu/ist656/cbit/ide1.html

Seagate Fast ATA andATA-2 fact sheet
http://www.seagate.com/support/disc/papers/fastfs.shtml