IDE may refer to any of the following:
- Short for Integrated Drive Electronics, IDE is more commonly known as ATA or PATA (parallel ATA). It is a standard interface for IBM computers that was first developed by Western Digital and Compaq in 1986 for compatible hard drives and CD or DVD drives. IDE is different than SCSI and ESDI (Enhanced Small Disk Interface) because its controllers are on each drive, meaning the drive can connect directly to the motherboard or controller. IDE and its updated successor, EIDE (Enhanced IDE), are common drive interfaces found in IBM compatible computers. Below is a picture of the IDE connector on a hard drive, IDE cable, and the IDE channels on the motherboard.
The location of the 1 pin (first pin) on an IDE cable is usually designated by the red stripe on one side of the cable. In the example picture above, the 1 pin is on the right side of the cable.
How many drives can each IDE channel support?
Each IDE channel can support two drives. A single IDE ribbon cable has three connection. One connection connects to the motherboard and the other two connections are available for the two drives.
- Alternatively called IDLE, IDE is short for integrated development environment, and are visual tools that allow programmers to develop programs more efficiently. Commonly, an IDE may have a compiler, debugger, text editor, and other integrated tools. Smalltalk was the first programming language to have a first true IDE.
Related information
- Advantages of SATA over PATA.
- How to connect an IDE drive to SATA.
- Computer disk drive interface help and support.
- Hard drive help and support.
- Motherboard help and support.
Below is a list of some popular IDE programs used by developers today.
- Code::Blocks
- Eclipse
- Komodo
- Microsoft Visual Studio
- NetBeans
- PyCharm
- RubyMine
- Xcode
ATA, Bus, Cable, Channel, Computer acronyms, Connection, Data cable, EIDE, Floppy cable, Hard drive terms, Hardware terms, Idle, Motherboard terms, .NET, PIIX, Programming terms, SATA, ToolboX
