-
IBM PC AT
IBM introduced the first PC to include support for hard drives. -
Period: to
ATA Progression
-
ATA-2
This new standard included new features such as higher capacities, support for non-hard drive storage devices, support for two more ATA devices for a maximum of four, and substantially improved throughput. -
ATA-3
ATA-3 added a new feature called Self-Monitoring, Analysis, and Reporting Technology, or S.M.A.R.T. This helps predict when a hard drive is going to fail by monitoring the hard drive's mechanical components. -
ATA-4
ATA-4 brought on a new DMA mode called Ultra DMA. This uses bus mastering to achieve far faster speeds than possible with PIO or old-style-DMA. -
ATA-5
Ata-5 defined a new kind of ribbon cable that handled higher speeds. It has 80 wires but only 40 pins. The extra 40 wires were just ground wires to decrease noise in between the other wires. -
ATA-6
ATA-6 introduced the Big Drive that had a lot more room for data on it. It had a 48-bit LBA giving it more space. It also enhanced block mode, enabling drives to transfer up to 65,536 sectors rather than 256 sectors. It also introduced Ultra DMA mode 5, which brought the data transfer rate up to 100 MBps. -
ATA-7
This brought forward SATA; this needs way fewer wires to do the same thing that older standards could didn't dream of, decreasing the noise and increasing the throughput of data.
