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IDE (Parallel ATA) cables are the cables that connect, and transferr, data to all of your main components, such as a CD Drive or a Hard Drive, to you motherboard. Most IDE cables are flat and wide with many (usually 40 or 80) small wires to transferr the data.

A standard ATA cable, also known as Parallel ATA or ribbon cable.
Many IDE or ATA cables have more than one connection for hardware, allowing more than one device to be connected with just one IDE cable. IDE cables are cable of transferring data at rates of 33/66/100 or 133 MB/second.

There are also newer cables that are for Serial ATA (SATA) Drives these cables only contain 7 wires on the inside and can provide a much faster rate of transferr, they currently support 150MB/s, however, there is a potential for them to get as fast as 600MB/s!

A serial ATA cable

A PATA ribbon cable at top and a SATA at the bottom.