Hardware Reference
In-Depth Information
Note
Most 40-conductor cables do not have color-coded connectors, whereas all 80-conductor
cables have color-coded connectors.
The two primary variations of PATA cables in use today—one with 40 conductors and the
other with 80 conductors—are shown in
Figure 7.6
. As you can see, both use 40-pin con-
nectors, and the additional wires in the 80-conductor version are simply wired to ground.
The additional conductors are designed to reduce noise and interference and are required
when setting the interface to run at 66MBps (ATA/66) or faster. The drive and host ad-
apter are designed to disable the higher-speed ATA/66, ATA/100, and ATA/133 modes if
an 80-conductor cable is not detected. In such cases, you might see a warning message
when you start your computer if an ATA/66 or faster drive is connected to a 40-conductor
cable.Youcanalsousethe80-conductorcableatlowerspeedstoimprovesignalintegrity.
Therefore, it is the recommended version no matter which drive you use.
Figure 7.6
A 40-conductor PATA cable (left) and a 80-conductor PATA cable (right).
