Digital Audio Production 60512 Mbytes per second and storage devices of up to 8.4 Gbytes. These numbers are
comparable to what SCSI offers. However, because the interface handling is handled by
the disk drive, IDE is a very simple interface and does not exist as an interequipment
standard, that is, you cannot connect an external drive using IDE. Due to demands for
easily upgradable storage capacity, and for connection with external devices such as
recordable CD players, SCSI has become the preferred bus standard in audio applications.
20.6.2 SCSI
An abbreviation of Small Computer System Interface and pronounced “ scuzzy, ” SCSI
is a parallel interface standard used by Apple Macintosh computers (and some PCs) for
attaching peripheral devices to computers. All Apple Macintosh computers starting with
the Macintosh Plus come with a SCSI port for attaching devices such as disk drives and
printers. SCSI interfaces provide for fast data transmission rates,; up to 40 Mbytes per
second. In addition, SCSI is a multidrop interface, which means that you can attach many
devices to a single SCSI port.
Although SCSI is an ANSI standard, unfortunately, due to ever higher demands on
throughput, SCSI comes in a variety of “ fl avors! ” Each is used in various studio and
mastering applications and, as a musician engineer, you will need to be aware of the
differences. The following varieties of SCSI are currently implemented:
SCSI-1: Uses an 8-bit bus and supports data rates of 4 Mbytes/s.
SCSI-2: Same as SCSI-1, but uses a 50-pin connector instead of a 25-pin connector.
This is what most people mean when they refer to plain SCSI.
Fast SCSI: Uses an 8-bit bus and supports data rates of 10 Mbytes/s.
Ultra SCSI: Uses an 8-bit bus and supports data rates of 20 Mbytes/s.
Fast Wide SCSI: Uses a 16-bit bus and supports data rates of 20 Mbytes/s.
Ultra Wide SCSI: Uses a 16-bit bus and supports data rates of 40 Mbytes/s; this is
also called SCSI-3.
20.6.3 Fiber Channel
Fiber channel is a data transfer architecture developed by a consortium of computer and
mass storage device manufacturers. The most prominent Fibre Channel standard is Fibre