SCSI (Small Computer Systems Interface) - definition
SCSI (Small Computer Systems Interface) - definition
SCSI (Small Computer System Interface) is a standardised communication interface used to connect and transfer data between a computer and peripherals such as hard drives, optical drives, scanners, printers or magnetic tapes. SCSI was developed in the 1980s as a versatile and architecture-independent solution for high performance, flexibility and compatibility in workstation and server-class computer system environments.
The basis of SCSI is a bus to which multiple devices (typically up to 8 or 16) can be connected, with the ability to address them by unique SCSI IDs. Each device can act as an initiator (controller) or a target (peripheral), allowing data to be transferred between each other without involving the CPU in the detailed transmission flow. This interface supports both parallel and serial transmission modes, depending on the version of the standard.
SCSI versions have evolved from classic parallel SCSI (e.g. SCSI-1, SCSI-2, Ultra SCSI) to modern high-speed serial implementations such as Serial Attached SCSI (SAS), providing much higher bandwidth and better scalability. Parallel versions required signal terminators and were more susceptible to interference with longer cable lengths, limiting their use in very large systems.
SCSI gained recognition in professional applications due to its support for command queuing, independence of data protocols from the physical hardware layer, and the ability to support multiple operations in parallel.](/ca/en/news/library-articles/page/69352/) In operating systems and hardware controllers, the protocol is supported by a layer of drivers, allowing efficient management of I/O operations and integration with enterprise-class Mass Storage systems [. Despite the growing popularity of interfaces such as SATA, NVMe and USB, SCSI-based solutions are still used in servers, disk arrays and data archiving systems, especially where reliability and high availability are important.
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