Many of you have written to us wondering about the different SCSI formats, which is best for digital audio, which is fastest, etc. Naturally, inSync has the answers! Here’s our recipe for SCSI soup:
| SCSI Type | SCSI bus width | SCSI bus speeds (max data rate) |
| SCSI | 8 bit | 5 MB/second |
| Fast SCSI | 8 bit | 10 MB/second |
| Fast Wide SCSI | 16 bit | 20 MB/second |
| Ultra SCSI | 8 bit | 20 MB/second |
| Wide Ultra SCSI | 16 bit | 40 MB/second |
| Ultra2 SCSI | 8 bit | 40 MB/second |
Keep in mind that the "maximum data rate" spec listed above is exactly that, the VERY BEST you can hope for. The system’s actual mileage will vary depending on configuration, but will always fall somewhere BELOW this figure. As a benchmark, when working with 44.1 kHz digital audio, each track will require 5 MB/minute, or around 85 KB/second. Sixteen tracks will require around 1.3 MB/second.
One other point: It will do no good to install a Wide Ultra SCSI host adapter board in your computer and then use a regular SCSI drive with it – the slowest link in the chain will determine the data throughput for the whole system. Be sure your drive is matched in capability to your SCSI host adapter board, and your data speed requirements. The key figure to be concerned with is the "sustained transfer rate" for the drive (see today’s WFTD).