....... are crucial. 6.5 mbps data rate is necessary in a multi-addressable environment. SCSI I gives only 7 addressable ID locations, SCSI II supports 127. Fast SCSI II gives 5 mbps, Wide SCSI II gives 10 mpbs, although lags in SCSI port-to-CPU data bus bring this number down. Fast and Wide SCSI II supports 20 mbps, but Ultra SCSI III gives us 40 mbps. SCSI III boards require PCI hardware for achieving maximum data throughput and get realworld speeds above 5.4 mbps. There are firmware issues involved. There must be compatibility between the acceleration hardware, its firmware and the driver software, especially in a RAID environment. RAID is the optimum solution to such data intensive situations. RAID level 0, RAID level 1, RAID level 2, RAID level 6, RAID level 10. Striping, RAID level 0 makes each linked drive write in sequence with no error checking routines or data redundancy. Mirroring, RAID level 2, writes the data in tandem across 2 drives, where one drive always assumes the role of the source mirror. Do you have independent power supplys for all devices in the SCSI chain? How much redundancy is built into your storage system? Are all elements fully hot swapable? Will your Ultra SCSI III device be translatable into FireWire with the arrival of the Common Hardware Reference Platform Machines later this year? Will your storage devices benefit from upgrading your LAN to 100 base-T? Does your existing network fully implement Phase 2 ethernet? Are there hidden pockets using Phase I protocol that will prevent you from moving beyond 10 base-T?