What is SCSI?

SCSI (Small Computer System Interface) is used to connect and communicate between computers and peripheral devices, such as hard disk drives, tape drives, CD/DVD drives, and scanners. SCSI was originally developed as both a protocol and a parallel physical interface. Today, SCSI has retained and expanded the protocol, but replaced the parallel physical interface with multiple different types of serial interfaces.  The SCSI protocol is now transported over a Serial Attached SCSI bus (using SAS and SPL), in Fibre Channel environments (using FCP), and over IP based networks (LAN/WAN, using iSCSI).

SCSI was originally developed in the 1980s as a standard for connecting peripherals to computers, especially in high-performance and server environments. It has gone through various revisions and updates and is now used primarily for block storage devices and tape storage devices. SCSI is known for its flexibility, scalability, and performance, making it popular in enterprise and professional settings where high-speed data transfer and reliable storage connectivity are required.

The SCSI protocol continues to be used in enterprise and professional environments where high-performance storage connectivity is crucial.

Learn more about SCSI in our Educational Library