What Does ATA Stand for in a Hard Drive?

Hard drives in computers are flat platters of varying physical sizes with read/write heads that put information from the computer software onto the drive or read information that has been saved on the drive.

History

When the first IBM personal computer came on the market it only contained limited-capacity floppy disks for storing information. These were enhanced by a hard drive in the IBM PC/AT.

Types

IBM called the added hard drive an "Advanced Technology Attachment." In naming the new model, IBM abbreviated this to "AT" in PC/AT to advertise the advanced technology.

Features

The original ATA drive had a very slow data-transfer rate compared to current models. A "fast" ATA drive increased the speed in steps over a few years.

Benefits

Installing large software programs on the early computers required multiple floppy disks. When the computer memory was exceeded, the only access to parts of these programs was very slow through a floppy drive.

Identification

Advanced Technology Attachment drives use wide and flat ribbon cables with multiple pins at each end to connect to the motherboard in the computer.