The SCSI family of standards provides for many different transport protocols that define the rules for exchanging information between different SCSI devices. This standard defines the rules for exchanging information between SCSI devices using a serial interconnect. Other SCSI transport protocol standards define the rules for exchanging information between SCSI devices using other interconnects.

This standard also defines the rules for exchanging information between ATA hosts and ATA devices using the same serial interconnect. Other ATA transport protocol standards define the rules for exchanging information between ATA hosts and ATA devices using other interconnects.

These standards specify the interfaces, functions and operations necessary to ensure interoperability between conforming implementations. This standard is a functional description. Conforming implementations may employ any design technique that does not violate interoperability.