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The computer marketplace is segmented into various classes of machines divided by user expectations in terms of cost, performance, compatibility and ease-of-use. The largest distinct segment today is the personal computer market, characterized by single- user products supporting a broad user base. The usage of these machines in business and home environments has dictated an emphasis on cost and compatibility. Historically, cost and compatibility in the personal computer marketplace have been more important to mainstream users than very high performance. The PC user has simply not been willing to bear the added cost or potential lack of compatibility that highest performance solutions imply.
Given this criteria, the mainstream volume personal computer market has standardized on the IDE interface for its primary storage needs. The success of the IDE interface in the PC market has resulted primarily from a perfect match between IDE's offerings and the requirements of the market it serves. Specifically, its low cost of connection, compatibility, and ease-of-use, compared to alternative interfaces such as the Small Computer System Interface (SCSI), have been essential attributes in satisfying an expansive price-sensitive user group. In addition, because of the broad user base it serves, the personal computer market has traditionally required only hard disk support to meet its mass storage requirements. IDE has therefore evolved as a drive-only interface.
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