02 Jul 15 11:05, you wrote to me:   
      
    ml>> PATA (old style) and SATA (new style) are both IDE... IDE   
      
    EV> I knew the P meant Parallel and the S meant Serial.   
    EV> I didn't know both xATA HDD's were IDE.  Thanks!   
      
   welcome :)   
      
    EV> I've always thought a Parallel connection was the way to go. I'm   
    EV> thinking about back in the early days Printers were RS-232 Serial, but   
    EV> later most all Printers used a Centronix Parallel connector. Until USB   
    EV> came along.   
      
   yup... parallel requires "latch queues" so that each bit is placed into a   
   latch and held while the others are loaded into their latches... then they are   
   all released at once to travel in parallel... loading the "latch queue" takes   
   time and adds some overhead... "latch queue" isn't what it was really called   
   but it is the closest thing i can think of right now...   
      
   think of parallel as the big toll booth line across the highway... think of   
   the highway leading up to the toll booth as a single lane and the highway   
   leaving the toll booth as a multilane highway with as many lanes as there are   
   booths... as each vehicle approaches, they are directed to the first empty   
   booth on the right so they fill the booths from right to left... they are held   
   in the booth until all booths are full and paid... then they are all released   
   at the same time to travel the next part of the highway in the lane they are   
   currently loaded in... there is no lane changing... when the first group leave   
   the booths, the next ones are queued in the same fashion from right to left to   
   pay and hold until all are loaded and ready... that's how serial is converted   
   to parallel...   
      
   this might help... tiny links below the matching one...   
      
   http://www.electronics-tutorials.ws/sequential/seq_5.html   
      
   http://tinyurl.com/pcs8kkh   
      
      
   http://www.allaboutcircuits.com/textbook/digital/chpt-12/serial-   
   n-parallel-out-shift-register/   
      
   http://tinyurl.com/obm8k66   
      
      
   http://electronicsbyexamples.blogspot.com/2013/03/serial-and-par   
   llel-io-shift-registers.html   
      
   http://tinyurl.com/opomeos   
      
      
   the above are my first three results when i ask uncle google for info on   
   "electronics latch serial parallel"...   
      
   https://www.google.com/search?q=electronics+latch+serial+parallel   
      
   i always found digital circuits easier to understand than analogue ones and   
   that lead to my picking up and understanding programming...   
      
      
    EV> SATA Hard Drives, I guess, must be faster than PATA Hard Drives?   
    EV> Even though the signal flow is Serial, which I always thought was   
    EV> slower because of Parallel Printers becoming more popular to buyers.   
      
   serial had some problems... both did, actually, but different problems...   
   serial has gotten much faster and is still easier to handle...   
      
    EV> -snip-   
    EV>> P.S. I was looking around Waldo's Place BBS a few days ago and   
    EV>> learned that the W in wkitty meant 'White'.   
      
    ml>> actually, the name of the bbs has the first name in it...   
    ml>> granted, the avatar is a white cat on a black background but   
    ml>> the bbs is named for the moniker ;)   
      
    ml>> )\/(ark   
      
    EV> So Your initials are WML?   
      
   no... i stated that poorly... the name of the bbs has the first name of the   
   moniker... my real name has nothing to do with my online moniker...   
      
    ml>> ... NAK NAK, "Who's There?" #@#^#$%#(#@^ NO CARRIER   
      
    EV> BELL (CTRL-G) would work better than a NAK wouldn't it?   
    EV> I'm thinking NAK is the NUL $00 ASCII Character.   
      
   i dunno... it is one of those thousands in the list... i see "NAK NAK" as a   
   play on words of "KONCK KNOCK" for kknock knock jokes ;)   
      
    EV> Was I close enuf?   
      
   sure! :)   
      
   )\/(ark   
      
   ... There is no limit to how bad things can get.   
   ---   
    * Origin:  (1:3634/12.73)