Conformance To Pcmcia Standards; Conformance To Scsi Standards - Adaptec SlimSCSI APA-1460 Technical Reference

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Conformance to industry specifications is an important requirement in today's market-
place, especially with PCMCIA and SCSI. Conformance helps to guarantee the widest
range of compatibility for a product such as the APA-1460, with host computer platforms
and devices.

Conformance to PCMCIA Standards

Electrically, mechanically, and functionally, the APA-1460 was designed in conformance
with Release 2.1 of the PCMCIA Specification.
The PCMCIA electrical specifications are written to ensure that no damage occurs when a
PCMCIA compatible card is plugged into a PCMCIA compatible computer (voltage and
signal levels are correct, etc.) The electrical specifications also guarantee that cards may be
safely plugged and unplugged from a computer while the power is on, which is referred
to as hot swapping. The APA-1460 supports hot swapping.
The PCMCIA standard allows several physical form factors: Type I, Type II, Type III, and
Toshiba Type IV with certain allowable variations, such as Type II Extended. The
APA-1460 Card follows the form factor of a standard Type II card. When the APA-1460
Cable is plugged into the APA-1460 Card, the combination most closely resembles a
Type II Extended product with regard to key physical dimensions.
Functionally, in addition to the I/O mapped SCSI registers (see the AIC-6360 Data Book),
the APA-1460 also implements a PCMCIA Attribute Memory Space. Configuration informa-
tion in the form of a CIS (Card Information Structure) is stored in this memory space. The
CIS may be read by the PCMCIA host to automatically configure the APA-1460 using the
information stored therein.

Conformance to SCSI Standards

The APA-1460 is fully compatible with the SCSI-1 electrical specification. In fact, the
APA-1460 is based on the AIC-6360 SCSI protocol controller. Using this protocol controller,
the APA-1460 supports asynchronous and synchronous SCSI data transfer rates up to
10 MBytes/sec. The APA-1460 hardware supports SCSI arbitration, and disconnect/
reconnect features (though these features may or may not be taken advantage of by driver
software).
To save power and reduce noise on the SCSI cable, the APA-1460 uses active termination.
Active termination reduces terminator power consumption by nearly 100% in standby
mode and reduces reflections on the SCSI cable.
Using the SCSI-1 electrical interface, the APA-1460 software can send SCSI-2 commands to
those devices which require them. In this way, the APA-1460 is fully compatible with most
SCSI-2 devices on the market. (Most SCSI-2 devices claim SCSI-2 compliance by virtue of
their command set definition and are actually based on SCSI-1 electrical designs.)
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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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Conformance to Industry Specifications
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ECN Date: 8/30/94
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