1. Short for Integrated Drive Electronics or IBM Disc Electronics, IDE is more commonly known as ATA or Parallel ATA (PATA) and is a standard interface for IBM compatible hard drives. IDE is different from the Small Computer Systems Interface (SCSI) and Enhanced Small Device Interface (ESDI) because its controllers are on each drive, meaning the drive can connect directly to the motherboard or controller. IDE and its updated successor, Enhanced IDE (EIDE), are the most common drive interfaces found in IBM compatible computers today. Below, is a picture of the IDE connector on the back of a hard disk drive, a picture of what an IDE cable looks like, and the IDE channels it connects to on the motherboard.
2. Alternatively referred to as IDLE, IDE is short for Integrated Development Environment, and are visual tools that allow programmers to develop programs more efficiently. Commonly, an IDE may have a compiler, debugger, text editor, and other integrated tools. Smalltalk was the first programming language to have a first true IDE.
Modifying an IDE cable to properly put the master on the far end means that the far end pin 28 is grounded and the middle connector pin 28 has to float. This is quite a bit more work and requires soldering skills. But we'll try to describe it.
Similar to the previous cable, we need to cut the 28th wire on the ribbon cable, but this time it's on the other side of the middle connector. This effectively cuts pin 28 off from both connectors. We need to somehow ground this line, and fortunately the IDE cable has several of these. We'll borrow a ground from pin 40.
Between the two drive connectors cut pin 28 near the middle connector and release about two inches of this wire towards the far connector. Strip about one centimeter of insulation from this wire, exposing the conductor. Twist the exposed wire to keep the strands together.
Then separate the 40th wire (opposite end from the red stripe) from the 39th wire by carefully cutting the plastic between the two. But do not cut the wire itself. Very carefully strip away about 2 cm of insulation from the 40th wire, exposing the metal conductor. Again, do not cut the conductor itself. Solder the pin-28 wire to the exposed pin-40 wire, grounding the CS line to the master connector on the end.