In addition to USB, what are the four types of interfaces for use in personal computers for connecting drives? Briefly describe each.

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Student responses will vary, but should be drawn from the following information from the text.

Four other types of interfaces for use in personal computers are EIDE, SCSI, SAS, and SATA.
• EIDE (Enhanced Integrated Drive Electronics) is an interface that uses parallel signals to transfer data, instructions, and information. EIDE interfaces provide connections for hard disks, RAID, SSDs, optical disc drives, and tape drives.

• Like EIDE, SCSI (Small Computer System Interface) also uses parallel signals, but can support up to 8 or 15 peripheral devices. Supported devices include hard disks, RAID, SSDs, optical disc drives, tape drives, printers, scanners, network cards, and more.

• SAS (serial-attached SCSI) is a type of SCSI that uses serial signals to transfer data, instructions, and information. Advantages of SAS over parallel SCSI include thinner, longer cables; reduced interference; lower cost; support for many more connected devices at once; and faster speeds. SAS interfaces support connections to hard disks, RAID, SSDs, optical disc drives, printers, scanners, digital cameras, and other devices.

• SATA (Serial Advanced Technology Attachment) uses serial signals to transfer data, instructions, and information. The primary advantage of SATA interfaces is their cables are thinner, longer, more flexible, and less susceptible to interference than cables that use parallel signals. SATA interfaces support connections to hard disks, RAID, SSDs, and optical disc drives. External drives can use the eSATA (external SATA) interface, which is much faster than USB.