IDE cables, called as Parallel ATA cables, are part of an internal device requirement set forth by X3/INCITS team. These cables are utilized in requirement to attach devices like optical drives, hard drives and solid state drives. IDE cables have mainly been changed by new SATA technology released in 2003.

History

1. The first edition of IDE specification, which maintains design aspects of IDE cables, was introduced in a joint venture between Western Digital, Control Data and Compaq corporations. Compaq was first company to aspect IDE drives in a product line for customers. This requirement was unique in that it not only restored connectors and interfaces for IDE cable, but also located the drive controller on hard drive itself. This decreased the amount of traffic over cable and considerably decreased operation overhead for the drives.

Function

2. The work of IDE cable was to act as a medium for data broadcast between internal devices like hard drives, and motherboard of computing solution. Firstly, IDE cables were only able of move speeds up to 16 MB/s. This modified as technology matured, and final maximum move speed of IDE specification is 133 MB/s. IDE cables are restricted by requirement to 18 inches. Because of this restriction, these cables are rarely utilized for external devices.

40-Wire Variant

3. The first cable for IDE requirement was 40-wire ribbon cable. All cables were wired with either two or three connectors. One connector connected to system motherboard, as other connected to a system drive or device. In case of three connectors, two devices could be connected to drive end of cable and share an IDE channel. These connectors were color-coded as blue, black and grey to indicate correct connective points.

80-Wire Variant

4. As IDE requirement grew to include ever-increasing transfer rates, design of IDE cable had to be restructured. As transfer speeds raised, chance for "cross-talk" increased also. This is process of electrical signals on one conductor wire accidentally affecting signals on a neighboring wire. In an effort to decrease this cross-talk, 80-wire IDE cable was out. All extra wires were nothing more than ground wires utilized to add distance between data and signaling wires. 80-wire IDE cables are current standard for IDE installations.

44-Wire Variant

5. Individual alternative of IDE cable was intended particularly for utilize in mobile computing like laptops. 44-wire IDE cable was equal to 40-wire IDE cable, with some slight exceptions. The 44-wire IDE cable was intended to be compatible with only 2.5-inch internal drives like laptop hard drives. Also, extra four wires on this particular cable were not utilized for data, signaling or grounding. These wires were utilized as power mediums to devices it served. This permitted for a smaller form factor and negated need for two individual cables in a laptop for every drive.