Advanced Technology Attachment (ATA) is a standard interface for connecting storage devices such as hard disks and CD-ROM drives inside personal computers. Many terms and synonyms for ATA exist, including abbreviations such as IDE, ATAPI, and UDMA.

With the market introduction of Serial ATA in 2003, the original ATA was retroactively renamed Parallel ATA (PATA). In line with the original naming, this article only covers Parallel ATA.

Parallel ATA standards only allow cable lengths up to 46 centimetres (18 inches) although cables up to 91 cm (36 inches) can be readily purchased. Because of this length limit, the technology normally appears as an internal computer storage interface. It provides the most common and the least expensive interface for this application.

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