EIDE vs. SCSI

By now, you've probably heard some comparison talk about all the different kinds of hard drives for your computer or workstation. There are two major formats of bussing data inside and outside your computer, EIDE (Enhanced Integrated Drive Electronics) and SCSI (Small Computer System Interface). The new Mackie HDR24/96 uses the EIDE data bus as its primary method of writing all digital audio data. Why? We're glad you asked that!...

EIDE & Ultra DMA

Digital audio requires a very large amount of data storage as well as the ability to "write" large amounts of data to a drive in real time. When you record sounds into a computer, it converts the waveforms into data (lots of ones and zeros) and stores that data onto the hard drive. Every computer has a limitation as to how much data it can write to its hard drive in real time (referred to as maximum throughput). It used to be that all multi-media production could only work with SCSI because the SCSI bus had the ability to write much larger chunks of data to a drive than the IDE bus. However, the IDE bus has undergone major improvements to become EIDE with the advent of UDMA (Ultra Direct Memory Access). UDMA/33 has enabled the IDE data bus to handle up to 33.3Mb/sec throughput, which is a major improvement when compared to the previous IDE PIO (Program Input/Output) modes that max out at 16.6Mb/sec.

OK, enough technical jargon! All this really means that the EIDE data bus can easily handle all the writing capacity required by a 24 track, 24 bit hard disk recorder - with plenty of headroom to spare.

Cost

Mackie is a firm believer in cost-efficiency, which is another reason the HDR24/96 uses the EIDE data bus. When you compare the cost of an EIDE drive to a same-sized SCSI drive, the EIDE drive is less than half the price. Part of the reason for this is that the SCSI data bus requires logic on both ends of the data bus cable, whereas EIDE does not.

Conclusion

Because of the leaps and bounds IDE technology has made over the last few years, professionals and consumers alike can now take advantage of the EIDE data bus. Why spend twice the money to store identical material in identically-sized drives? The Mackie HDR24/96 maintains Mackie's philosophy of high-quality, professional audio products at an affordable price.