[NCLUG] disk drive partition designation

[William Greger]

My PC system is dual-boot (Ubuntu 8.04; XP Pro).
It contains
- HD1: ATA 100 controller, primary, master (for Linux)
- HD2: ATA 100 controller, primary, slave (for Windows)
- optical drives use the ATA 100 controller, secondary, master/slave

In the Linux directory,
/dev contains
       /sda
       /sda1    # / (root)
       /sda2    # swap
       /sda3    # /home
       /sdb
       /sdb1    # C:
       /sdb2
       /sdb5    # D:
       /sdb6    # E:
       /sdb7    # F:
       /sdb8    # G:
Why is the  sd..  designation used?  I don't have a SCSI controller!
The Linux/UNIX documentation I have read refers to  hda, hdb, ...
as well as  SCSI drives referred to as  sda, sdb, ...
So I am confused as to what's correct.
Please explain what's going on.

Bill Greger