Storage Architectures and Devices 101
Table 18. Overview of SCSI-III Standards
For clarity, the SCSI-III interconnects are discussed. There are four SCSI-III
interconnect technologies:
• SCSI-III Parallel Interface (SPI)
• Fibre Channel Physical and Signaling Interface (FC-PH)
• IEEE 1394 High Performance Serial Bus
• Serial Storage Architecture Bus (SSA-PH)
SPI is as close to SCSI-II technology as we can get because both are parallel
technologies. FC-PH, SSA-PH and IEEE 1394 introduce serial data transfer
into the SCSI mix.
Standards Abbrev Function
SCSI-III Interlocked Protocol SIP Describes the protocols used on the SPI bus
Fibre Channel Protocol FCP Describes the protocols used on the FC bus
Serial Bus Protocol SBP Describes the protocols used on the IEEE
1394 bus
Serial Storage Protocol SSP Describes the protocols used on the SSA
bus
SCSI-III Architecture Model SAM Describes the architecture of the SCSI-III
model (includes the SCSI-III device models)
SCSI-III Primary Commands SPC Describes the commands that all SCSI
devices must implement
SCSI-III Block Commands SBC Describes the commands used to transmit
blocks of data
SCSI-III Stream Commands SSC Describes th e commands used to transmit
streams of data
SCSI-III Medium Changer
Commands SMC Describes the commands used to change a
medium in a device
SCSI-III Graphic Commands SGC Describes the commands that involve
graphics
SCSI-III Controller
Commands SCC Describes the commands used to configure
and test the controller of a device
SCSI-III Multimedia
Commands MMC Describes commands that involve
multimedia data, such as audio and video