Question
If I am not mistaken these names all referrer to the same technology. Are there any differences between them? If not, why does this technology go by so many different names?
Answer
IDE was the original name, then they standardized on ATA as being a broader standard that included additions like CDROMs and such. When SATA ( Serial ATA ) came out, people started using PATA to refer to the older parallel connected bus, to be more specific than the term ATA, which can refer to either. Both are part of the ATA standard, and use the same logical command sets, but SATA obviously has a different electrical interface.
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