What does an interface have to do with IDE vs. SCSI?
IDE and SCSI are different interfaces used for hard drives and other storage-like devices (CD-ROM). Before delving into more specifics of the two competing interfaces, we must understand just exactly what it is meant by an interface. The interface is the means by which the hard drive connects to the rest of the computer. It is the communication channel over which all the data flows, both in reading from or writing to the hard drive. From this, it can be seen just how important the hard drive and its interface are in the performance of a computer system. What is IDE? IDE is known by many names. These include ATA, ATA/ATAPI, EIDE, ATA-2, Fast ATA, ATA-3, Ultra ATA, Ultra DMA and many others as well. The true name for IDE is actually is AT Attachment, or ATA, but IDE seems to be the most common name used despite the fact that is arguably somewhat innnacurate. IDE is by far the most common and most widely used hard drive interface. It is the hard drive interface used by most home users. In
