Explaining the SCSI subsystem
People can mean a couple of things when referring to the SCSI (pronounced SKUZ-ee):
- A hardware bus to connect peripherals to a computer
- A command set to communicate with devices over different types of buses
For a long time, SCSI was the primary technology for I/O buses in computers. SCSI defines both an interface and a data protocol for connecting different types of devices to a computer. As a medium, SCSI defines a bus for data transmission. As a protocol, it defines how devices communicate with each other via the SCSI bus.
Initially, the connectivity of peripheral devices was achieved through a parallel SCSI bus. Over the years, the SCSI parallel bus has fallen out of favor and has been replaced with serial interfaces. The most common of these interfaces include Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) and SCSI over Fibre Channel. The serial interfaces provide far better data transfer rates and reliability. There is also an implementation of...
