IDE cables were first developed in 1986. That is before personal computers became popular among common people. But these cables really took off during the mid-90s. They replaced the older ATA standard almost completely by the end of that decade. However, a newer version of ATA cables was developed in 2003. This version was known as SATA. Compared to IDE cables, SATA cables were much superior and were also much more affordable and smaller in size. These days, IDE cables are only used in legacy systems.