Ata/udma

[d_stevens3]

Sorry if this seems like a stupid question but what is the difference between an ATA hard drive and a UDMA hard drive. Can a motherboard only support one type or can it support a ATA or UDMA drive? Does one have an advantage over the other in any way?
Any help is appreciated
Thank You

 

[laxma]

I don't really know either. but I think ATA is the connection type (like Serial ATA, Ultra ATA, IDE) so it is basically how a HD is connected to a computer, and UDMA is access method (Ultra Direct Memory Access). It makes a faster access time (not noticeable for me though). So, an ATA drive may support UDMA method. That's all I know, I hope I make you more confused

anybody can help him?

 

[d_stevens3]

i have done some research on the internet and it seems that they are both compatible with each other. laxma you are right udma seems to just be a fast way of accessing ata drives. thank you for your help.

 

[Praetor]

ATA = AT Attatchment = Advanced Technology Attatchment
UDMA = Ultra DMA = Ultra Direct Memory Access

With respect to drives they mean the same thing. Both ATA and UDMA drives refer to IDE (integrated drive electronics) drives whether they be PATA (Parallel ATA) or SATA (Serial ATA) drives. Why the need for this designation? Older drives (and i mean ooooooooold) run in a different mode, PIO (Programmable IO) which has a cap of 16MB/s ... a pale comparaison next to ATA6 (133MBytes/s) or ATA7 (150MBytes/s)