What is an SCSI card?

[catkingirl]

I'm sure one of you bright sparks will know - can you help? I just need to know basically what one is used for and perhaps what they look like. Thanks in advance x

[fabien]

It allows SCSI devices eg Disk Drives to talk to your computer. It's about the size of a fag packet with a ribbon cable coming out of it. You need to give everything on the SCSI cable a SCSI ID normally 0-7 so the computer knows how to access it - hope this helps - James

[catkingirl]

cheers luv! Could it be used to attached a seperate backing-up DLT device box thing to the computer? Would that be it? you've been very helpful, thank you

[moonacre]

SCSI is a type of interface i.e. something that allows one device to "talk" to another. The most common interface in a PC is IDE. Your hard drive, CD drive etc are almost certainly IDE. The IDE interface (usually built into the motherboard) allows these devices to communicate with other parts of the PC.

There are some advantages that SCSI has over IDE (such as speed) but this has become less over the years as IDE has been improved. So a SCSI card is used to connect a SCSI device (eg a disc drive or scanner that has been designed to only work with SCSI) to a computer. If you haven't got any SCSI devices then it's just a useless piece of junk!

If you're curious, SCSI is pronounced "scuzzi".

[TheHitMaker]

Small Computer System Interface.

[cupra]

....and if you are tempted by new SCSI preipherals, look at how much more expensive they tend to be, before you buy!

[catkingirl]

You've come through for me like I knew you would! "Scuzzi" rings a bell actually. I use a Mac - not a PC - but imagine I know which part it is now. It's just that I know I have one but had no idea what it was....until now. Thanks again.

[honkytonkman]

Ahhhh so nice to find another Mac user :) :)