On 7/26/10 2:37 PM, nestamicky wrote:
On 7/26/2010 2:56 PM, Len Gerstel wrote:
Very overly simplified:
ATA drives in the beginning were all Parallel ATA. There were no other
options so the parallel was not stated most of the time. Parallel
means 8 data lines working in unison.
Serial ATA (SATA) drives came on the market and there needed to be a
way to distinguish between original ATA drives and the new spec. So
they added the originally implied P(arallel) to the beginning of ATA.
Serial is the 8 data bits going one after the other.
This then is to say all ATA drives are in fact PATA? It seems to me
adding (S) to the original named ATA should have been good enough to
distinguish SATA from the earlier technology?
No, all ATA drives are either PATA or SATA.
It's fairly common in the computer biz that new names crop up for
existing technology to differentiate it from newer technology. There
was no FPM RAM until ECO RAM came along, prior to that it was just DIMMs.
Yes, calling the older drives PATA does cause some confusion but that
should die down where as the potential for confusion over the term "ATA"
is constant. Both PATA and SATA are "ATA". It's better to
differentiate them than to muddle things.
Unfortunately no one knows where technology is going to go so they can't
name things "properly" long before some new technology is going to appear.
--
Clark Martin
Redwood City, CA, USA
Macintosh / Internet Consulting
"I'm a designated driver on the Information Super Highway"
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