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(ATA, AT Attachment or"Integrated Drive Electronics", IDE) A disk drive interfacestandard based on the IBM PC ISA 16-bit bus but alsoused on other personal computers. ATA specifies the powerand data signal interfaces between the motherboard and theintegrated disk controller and drive. The ATA "bus" onlysupports two devices - master and slave.ATA drives may in fact use any physical interface themanufacturer desires, so long as an embedded translator isincluded with the proper ATA interface. ATA "controllers" areactually direct connections to the ISA bus.Originally called IDE, the ATA interface was invented byCompaq around 1986, and was developed with the help ofWestern Digital, Imprimis, and then-upstart ConnerPeripherals. Efforts to standardise the interface started in1988; the first draft appeared in March 1989, and a finishedversion was sent to ANSI group X3T10 (who named it "AdvancedTechnology Attachment" (ATA)) for ratification in November1990.X3T10 later extended ATA to Advanced Technology AttachmentInterface with Extensions (ATA-2), followed by ATA-3 andATA-4.X3T10 (http://symbios.com/x3t10/).