UDMA, ultra ata-100, wtf?

[Guest]

could someone please explain or point me in the direction of a straight forward definition of UDMA, ultra ata-100, and the difference between the two, what they do, etc?
i've tried reading the storagereview.com reference, but every paragraph leads me to a link of a definition that has links to definitions within the definition and it never ends...
I have a soyo dragon + mobo, which supports udma and ultra ata 100, and i just got an IBM 41 gig 60gxp HDD, and am not exactly sure what sort of cable i need/should use with it to get optimal performance.
thanks for helping out the layman!
-sh33p

 

[Lars_Coleman]

To give you the answer to your last question, you are going to want an 80 wire 40 pin Ultra cable. A shielded cable that will provide the best data integrity.

UDMA (Ultra-ATA)= An enhanced version of the IDE interface that transfers data at 33, 66, 100, 133 MB/per second. These enhancements are also called DMA, Ultra DMA, ATA33, ATA66, ATA100, ATA133, DMA33, DMA66, DMA100, and DMA133.

<font color=red>People and hard drives are like bandwagon fans and sports!</font color=red>

 

[Guest]

Ah, thanks for the info. This was getting confusing

 

[Zlash]

The cable should be blue on one end at least i believe for the higher ones too.

...

 

[Crashman]

ATA is the protocol IDE drives use. DMA stands for Direct Memory Addressing and has been used for a few years on most hard drives and a couple years on most CD-ROMS. So UDMA100 and ATA100 are the same thing. OH, and EIDE, that's just part of the ATA protocol also.

What's the frequency, Kenneth?

 

[vetplus40]

These are some old definitions.Some have changed slightly through the years.
IDE=Integrated Drive Electronics
EIDE=Enhanced Integrated Drive Electronics
RAID=Redundent Array of Inexpensive(Independent)Devices
DMA=Direct Memory Access(Adressing)
ISA =Industry Standard Architecture
.......Hope this is of some benefit....

If ya don't ask..How ya gonna know.