User`s manual

4
ARS-2016/2016E Manual
Chapter 1 About SCSIDE
1.1 Revolutionary Technology
SCSIDE® is a revolutionary technology developed by ACARD Technology Corp. It
can not only transform IDE data into SCSI type, but also save the expenditures.
Through this technology any cheap IDE device can have high-performance SCSI
applications. The following examples are simply a little portion of SCSIDE®
applications.
1. To transform an IDE hard disk into an external SCSI one for notebook and desktop
PC users to back up data.
2. To transform an IDE CD-ROM or CD-R/RW into a SCSI one. It is an unprecedented
technology.
3. To transform your favorite IDE DVD-ROM, DVD-RAM/R, DVD-R/RW or DVD+RW/
+R into an LVD SCSI one.
4. To daisy chain multiple SCSIDE® DVD-ROMs to create a DVD-ROM server.
5. To transform a DMA33/66/100/133 hard drive of 5400rpm or 7200rpm into an
LVD SCSI one for PC workstations, servers and Unix workstations, servers.
The basic structure of SCSIDE® is a “RAID On Chip” which highly integrates multiple
CPUs. This ROC design is resulting from ACARD’s years of experiences in the
design of IDE, SCSI and RISC CPU chips. The block diagram on the next page
shows that ROC has multiple CPUs. Its ROM, RAM, DMA controllers and external
ROM interface can be used as the firmware update of flash ROM. ACARD has a
perfect firmware technology, too. It makes the transformation of IDE to SCSI really
“plug and play”. The firmware has been tested on almost all brands of IDE DMA33/
66/100/133 HDDs, ATAPI CD-ROMs, DVD-ROMs. Whether your IDE device is an
ATA hard drive, CD-ROM, CD-RW or DVD-ROM, you can all plug it and enjoy the
advantages of SCSI. With the intelligent firmware design, you don’t need to install a
driver into the operating system so as to use SCSIDE® products. In the operating
system it is just like a SCSI device.