IDE: Integrated Device Electronics and Integrated Development Environment. What’s the Difference?
Every machine runs this way: hardware plus software equals some process.
The same is true with the interfacing of the hard disk to the rest of your computer. In this case, the hardware part of the process of interfacing the hard disk is the Integrated Device Electronics while the software part is the Integrated Development Environment.
The former IDE is actually some set of computer programs that runs on an interface. The latter IDE is the hardware interface for a hard disk, or the IDE socket on the motherboard.
On simpler words, the Integrated Device Electronics runs the Integrated Development Environment to make it possible for the hard disk to work.
Understanding IDE Hard Disks
Hard disks or sometimes called hard drives allow the storage of huge amounts of data on an electromagnetically charged surface or set of surfaces. A hard disk is actually composed of a stack of disks similar to old phonograph records where data is recorded in concentric circles known as tracks. The disk drive head records and reads information stored on the tracks. There are two heads located on both sides of a disk that either reads or writes data as the disk is spinning. Every read or write event needs for the data to be located which is known as seek operation. Hard disks come with varying speed and mapped to logical block address (LBA) which is commonly found in larger hard drives.