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Appendix C Glossary of Terms 51
S
SCSI (Small Computer Systems Interface)
A PC bus interface standard that defines standard physical and
electrical connections for devices. SCSI provides a standard
interface that enables many different kinds of devices, such as
disk drives, magneto optical disks, CD-ROM drives, and tape
drives to interface with the host computer.
SCSI DEVICE
A device such as a host adapter board, fixed disk drive or CD-
ROM drive that conforms to the SCSI interface standard and is
attached to a SCSI bus cable. The device may be an initiator, a
target, or capable of both types of operation.
Single-ended SCSI (normal SCSI)
For each signal that needs to be sent across the bus, there exists
a wire to carry it.
SYNCHRONOUS TRANSFER
A method of SCSI data transfer. With this type of data transfer,
the SCSI host adapter and the SCSI device agree to a transfer rate
that both support (this is known as synchronous negotiation).
With this type of data transfer method, transfer rates of 5
MBytes/sec or 10 MBytes/sec (for FAST SCSI) are common.
Is SYNCHRONOUS faster than ASYNCHRONOUS?
Asynchronous is faster on short cables, while synchronous is
faster on long cables. The reason has to do with the propagation
delay of the cable; the turn around time of the silicon; and the
interlocked nature of the asynchronous handshake.