Advanced Technology Attachment (ATA) is most closely related to disk drives that are enabled by Integrated Drive Electronics (IDE) technology.

IDE is a computer system interface used primarily for hard disks and CD-ROMs, and is meant to be a "hard disk that integrates the controller with the platter". A few years ago, most of the hard drives used in PC mainframes were IDE-compatible, requiring only a single cable to connect them to the motherboard or adapter, whereas today the main interface is SATA.

At the same time, as SATA technology has evolved, motherboards without ATA have appeared, and Intel no longer supports the ATA interface by default in newer chipsets, so host computer manufacturers need to add a separate chip to support ATA (usually for compatibility with older hard disks and CD-ROM drives).

Pros and cons:

Inexpensive, very good compatibility (IDE cables are backward compatible, so that newer cables are compatible with older devices, but older cables are not compatible with newer devices due to excessive noise), and slow (especially with early ATA hard drives).

Without a USB-to-IDE conversion cable, it can only be used internally.