What Does Small Computer System Interface (SCSI) Mean?
A small computer systems interface (SCSI) is a standard interface for connecting peripheral devices to a PC. Depending on the standard, generally it can connect up to 16 peripheral devices using a single bus including one host adapter. SCSI is used to increase performance, deliver faster data transfer transmission and provide larger expansion for devices such as CD-ROM drives, scanners, DVD drives and CD writers. SCSI is also frequently used with RAID, servers, high-performance PCs and storage area networks SCSI has a controller in charge of transferring data between the devices and the SCSI bus. It is either embedded on the motherboard or a host adapter is inserted into an expansion slot on the motherboard. The controller also contains SCSI basic input/output system, which is a small chip providing the required software to access and control devices. Each device on a parallel SCSI bus must be assigned a number between 0 and 7 on a narrow bus or 0 and 15 on a wider bus. This number is called an SCSI ID. Newer serial SCSI IDs such as serialattached SCSI (SAS) use an automatic process assigning a 7-bit number with the use of serial storage architecture initiators.
Techopedia Explains Small Computer System Interface (SCSI)
Peripheral devices are attached to the CPU through buses and interfaces, and SCSI is the most common interface for attaching these devices. SCSI’s efficiency is the main reason it is so widespread. SCSI was revolutionary in regards to data transfer and compatibility when compared to the parallel data transfer interfaces used in earlier days. SCSI also allows backward compatibility where devices were compatible with earlier version of SCSI. These devices can still be attached to a newer version of SCSI, but the data transfer rate will be slower. The original SCSI used a SCSI parallel bus.
