SCSI stands for "Small Computer System Interface" and is usually known by the way it's pronounced "scuzzy". It's a general-purpose male and parallel port for connecting many different devices to a computer. It's a fast port that was available before USB and FireWire. Usually used with CD-ROM drives and scanners. Commonly present in older Macs, if you want to use it on a PC they require an additional card that rarely come on a regular PC.
A common SCSI port reaches between 5 and 10 mbits/sec. SCSI usually is more used in big computers like servers and mainframes. When it is use in desktop PCs it is because you can add a scanner and several other drives (CD, DVD or Zip drives) to one SCSI cable chain. However this has is less important now that alternate multi purposes flexible ports such as USB and FireWire are more popular.
This is the common symbol use to represent a scuzzy port. However since there are different models you can find also different symbol, but they are all similar to this
SCSI ports are very fast and could in theory be used with any peripheral and with many of them at the same time. However really they are used mostly for scanners and external drives specially on Macs and big PC servers.
One of the problems is that there is not a real standard for manufacturers so there are some different types of scuzzy ports in the market. Also they are quiet expensive and so are the peripherals, cables and adapters associated with it. That is why the are more common in professional setting rather than for home use.
Even though theoretically they could be used with almost peripheral they are commonly used with scanners and external drives.
One of your friend offers you a "scuzzy"scanner that he won't be using anymore and but you are not sure if your computer have that type of port. You look in the back and you find this 3 ports available. Surprise! The one you need is there! You will survive just if you can recognize it... Which one is?
Definition - Pictures - Symbol - Advantages - Common Peripherals - Practice