SCSI Pass Through Interface explained

SCSI Pass Through Interface (SPTI) is an application programming interface (API) accessing a SCSI device. It is developed by Microsoft Corporation and is part of the Windows NT family of operating systems.^[1]

Overview

The storage port drivers provide an interface for Win32 applications to send SCSI Command Descriptor Block (CDB) messages to SCSI devices. The interfaces are IOCTL_SCSI_PASS_THROUGH and IOCTL_SCSI_PASS_THROUGH_DIRECT. Applications can build a pass-through request and send it to the device by using this IOCTL.

SPTI is accessible to Windows software using the DeviceIoControl Windows API.^[2]

ImgBurn offers SPTI as a method for accessing optical disc drives.^[3]

Other SCSI interfaces

• Windows:
  • Advanced SCSI Programming Interface (ASPI) by Adaptec, Nero AG and Pinnacle Systems^[4]
  • ASAPI by VOB Computersysteme GmbH and Pinnacle Systems
  • ElbyCDIO by Elaborate Bytes
  • Patin-Couffin by VSO Software
  • SCSI Pass-Through Direct (SPTD) by Duplex Secure, Ltd.
• The SCSI pass-through driver for Linux is called "SCSI generic" ^[5]

Further reading

1. Web site: SCSI Port I/O Control Codes . Microsoft Developer Network . Microsoft Corporation . 3 May 2011 . 30 May 2011 .
2. Web site: SCSI Interface for Multimedia and Block Devices . . Microsoft Corporation . 20 May 2011 .

Notes and References

1. Web site: INFO: SCSI Pass Through Functionality and Limitations (Revision: 2.2). Microsoft Support. Microsoft Corporation. 30 May 2011. 12 February 2007.
2. Web site: SCSI Pass Through Interface . Microsoft Developer Network . Microsoft Corporation . 30 May 2011 . 3 May 2011.
3. Web site: ImgBurn Support Forum . 8 August 2009 . 13 August 2009 . https://web.archive.org/web/20090813092638/http://forum.imgburn.com/lofiversion/index.php/t6659.html . dead .
4. Web site: ASPI is not supported by Microsoft for all versions of Windows (Revision: 3.2). Microsoft Support. Microsoft Corporation. 30 May 2011. 30 June 2005.
5. Web site: References, Credits and Corrections.