History of the ATA Standard

ATA - standard, which determines physical, electrical, transport and command protocols for data storage devices connected with the primary system (computer), which has been applied in personal computers since 1989. The development of the standard is carried out by the NCITS committee - T13. The standard is confirmed by NCITS, as well as on behalf of ANSI. New versions of ATA/ATAPI support compatibility with previous ones providing the opportunity for the connection of all devices compatible with ATA/ATAPI. Hard disk drives manufacturers often produce models that support either functionality even though it has not officially approved to the standard yet.

ATA-1
It was canceled in 1999.

ATA-2
Data transfer protocols PIO-4 and Multiword DMA-2, block data transfer, logical blocks addressing (LBA), additional signals (IORDY, CSEL), spindle engine shutdown commands, the capability of data transfer control by CRC algorithm. It was canceled in 2001.

ATA-3
S.M.A.R.T. and support of the access restriction. The LBA model became required. It was canceled in 2002.

ATA/ATAPI-4
HPA (protected data area), "enhanced security erase", APM (advanced power-saving), commands overlapping, command queuing optimization (TCQ), Ultra DMA-2 protocol (33 MB/s), ATAPI - the standard created in order to provide the opportunity for CD-ROM connection to the standard ATA connector that has simplified connection to CD-ROM and has made it possible to reduce their cost. The old commands were deleted - "Format track", "Read/Write long", "Write verify".

ATA/ATAPI-5
Ultra DMA-3 (44 MB/s) and Ultra DMA-4 (66 MB/s) protocols.

ATA/ATAPI-6
Support of volume greater than 128 GBytes provided by increasing LBA size from 28 to 48 bits, Ultra DMA-5 (100 MB/s) protocol, commands of audio/video streams support (increased volume of information passed by one command from 131 KB to 33 MB), AAM, extended S.M.A.R.T. journals, deletion of CHS addressing.

ATA/ATAPI-7
Ultra DMA-6 (133 MB/s) protocol, extended S.M.A.R.T. self-testing modes (Selective, Conveyance), support of extended S.M.A.R.T. journals, version of ATA series interface (SATA).

ATA/ATAPI-8
Trusted computing feature, free-fall sensor, "Write-Read-Verify" feature, additional storage device parameters management and enhanced data reading protocol (SCT), flash memory with power-saving management capability, nominal spindle motor rotation rate, time to spin up of the magnetic plates to the nominal velocity in seconds, WRITE UNCORRECTABLE EXT command.