SCSI is a "stand alone" independent communications channel. It can work with any operating systems such as Unix and all its versions, Microsoft Windows and so forth. It is the channel of choice. Many motherboards now are being designed to incorporate SCSI. It's an intelligent peripheral I/O interface with a standard, device independent protocol that allows many different peripheral devices to be attached to the host's SCSI port. Allows up to 8, 16 or 32 addresses on the bus depending on the width of the bus. Devices can include multiple hosts (initiators) and peripheral devices (targets) but must include a minimum of one of each. SCSI provides a high-speed, intelligent interface that allows an easy connection for up to 16 devices (8 devices for Narrow SCSI) on a single bus. These devices may be hard disks, floppy disks, CDs, tape drives, printers and scanners to name a few. Peripherals may be mounted in the computer or in an external enclosure. Total SCSI cable length is dependent on the type of SCSI. For more information see SCSI-1 X3.131-1986.