Overview; Features - Adaptec SlimSCSI APA-1460 Technical Reference

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Overview

The Adaptec APA-1460 PCMCIA-to-SCSI Host Adapter is a PCMCIA Type II add-in card
which allows computers equipped with a PCMCIA Type II, Type III, or Toshiba
socket to connect to a wide range of SCSI devices, including CD-ROM, hard disk, and tape.
PCMCIA (Personal Computer Memory Card International Association) is a widely
accepted industry standard for small form factor add-in cards. Such add-in cards gener-
ally fall into two categories:
Memory add-in products including solid state and rotating media
I/O add-in products, typically including fax-modems, network adapters, and SCSI
host adapters
PCMCIA is especially popular with notebook and subnotebook computers because of its
small, credit card size form factor and it is also supported on some desktop platforms.
SCSI is a well known and widely accepted peripheral interface bus standard. Most
CD-ROMs and many high-performance, high-capacity hard disks and tape drives imple-
ment the SCSI standard as well as scanners, high-speed laser printers, and digital
cameras.
The APA-1460 combines these two interface standards, permitting PCMCIA-equipped
host computers to communicate with SCSI devices at data rates up to 2 MBytes/sec. The
APA-1460 design addresses concerns present in the PCMCIA and SCSI worlds, many of
which are listed below in Features.
The APA-1460 is comprised of two physical parts: the Type II PCMCIA card, containing
the PCMCIA and SCSI electronics, and a custom SCSI cable. Reference to these two parts
is made throughout the document as the Card and Cable, respectively; both terms are cap-
italized for clarity. It is understood that APA-1460 refers collectively to the Card and
Cable.

Features

PIO Mode data transfer, overlapping mode address 340h or 140h
Power down Mode
Updateable attribute memory
Fast SCSI support
Plug and Play support
SCAM support (software support to be added later)
Based on PCMCIA 2.1 Specification
Conforms to the PCMCIA Specification, Release 2.1
Light-weight, yet rugged packaging
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APA-1460 SlimSCSI Technical Reference
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Print Spec Number: 492966-00, Rev. A
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Current Date: 8/22/94
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ECN Date: 8/30/94
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Introduction
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