USB IDE

Most people find computer terms very confusing and they can be. The jargon that is used in the computer industry is hard to understand because nobody really explains to the common person what it really means. For example, what is an usb ide? Technically, it is universal serial bus integrated drive electronics. Of course, the jargon can be confusing because even the computer industry has multiple interpretations for the same abbreviations. For example, IDE also stands for intelligent drive electronics. I am sure that did not help explain what it is.

So what really is an usb ide? It is a serial communications protocol that informs a computer how to communicate with a peripheral device. In laymen’s term, it is how a computer talks to anything outside of itself. For example, an external hard drive can use an usb ide to communicate with the internal electronics of a computer. They both agree to speak one language so they understand what each other are saying. In much the same way when two strangers first meet. Although both can talk, they must agree to a common language they both understand. That is what an usb ide does for computers.

There are also other ways peripheral devices communicate with the internal electronics of a computer. If they don’t speak the same language, an usb ide converter must be the translator between the two components. For example, a docking station uses sata but the computer communicates in ide. The converter solves this problem.