Diving into the wikipedia page, I learned that I can forget the name "IDE" (Integrated Drive Electronics) and think about "ATA" (AT - Attachment, from IBM's computer called AT).

There are different versions of ATA standard, each adding/changing some features and having it's own name. For this project we will need to read about "ATAPI" (AT Packet Interface). I tried to find some more tangible information on how to program it, starting with those wikipedia references. After scrolling briefely trough pages of ATA standard evolution, I came across a page named: "Making Sense of IDE/ATA Standards and Compatibility". Well...even that didn't help that much :(

After drowning in all this protocols and things, I decided I'll try something else. My computer has a cd-drive, and I have linux OS. This means that I can read the source code. So in theory (!!!) I could find out which commands my computer sends to the CD drive. I know, I know, there might be a faster or more direct way of getting to this info, but since I like messing with linux, drivers and low level stuff in general- why not? :)