ATAPI AT Attachment Packet Interface The Enhanced IDE standard by itself works wonders for hooking up disk drives to PCs. But that's not enough. People want to attach tape drives and CD-ROMs to the same controller. Thanks to EIDE's support for the ATAPI standard, they can. Using ATAPI-capable hardware and software drivers, you can mix and match different types of drives on the same EIDE controller, which is both a convenience and a savings in hardware costs. See also: EIDE