At 9:37 PM -0700 6/15/2010, Jeffrey Engle wrote:
ok, new to the scsi thing as you might have guessed. it just seems
to me that it's such a "yesterday" technology, why is it still in
big demand?
IEEE-1394, aka Firewire, is a subtype of SCSI-3.
SCSI-3 SPI, from 2003, btw, does 5120 Mbps (5.1 Gbps).
Why nothing newer? Because HD tech hasn't caught up to those speeds
yet! Sure, some drives are beginning to fake it with big buffers
(caches), but that only improves performance in certain limited
situations.
isn't sata better?
Right tool for the job... It all depends on the application.
SATA is a very simple 1:1 interface. SCSI is a more
intelligent/robust 1:many interface.
Remember that SCSI came from the server world - where you need large
numbers of drives, to offer real-time access to gigantic pools of
data. In that "world", you don't need to access every drive
simultaneously with individual dedicated bandwidth. You just need
access to any drive, at any time, and can share the available
bandwidth.
In a desktop/laptop computer, where you only need access to a couple
of drives, SATA, like PATA before it, makes good sense. It's cheap,
fast, and easy to cable up. Consider tho the cost of all the SATA
cards if you wanted to connect more than a couple HDs...
FWIW,
- Dan.
--
- Psychoceramic Emeritus; South Jersey, USA, Earth.
--
You received this message because you are a member of G-Group, a group for
those using G3, G4, and G5 desktop Macs - with a particular focus on Power Macs.
The list FAQ is at http://lowendmac.com/lists/g-list.shtml and our netiquette
guide is at http://www.lowendmac.com/lists/netiquette.shtml
To post to this group, send email to g3-5-list@googlegroups.com
For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/g3-5-list
