The presumably most important differences between SCSI2Pi and PiSCSI are listed below.
| Feature | SCSI2Pi | PiSCSI | Remark |
|---|---|---|---|
| Installation with the Debian package manager | ✅ | ❌ | Installation/Update without compiling in a matter of seconds, the highly optimized binaries are considerably smaller and save memory |
| Binary development snapshots | ✅ | ❌ | For development versions binaries are provided regularly |
| Official support also for Raspberry Pi OS Bookworm and Trixie | ✅ | ❌ | SCSI2Pi supports Raspberry Pi OS Bullseye, Bookworm and Trixie, 32 and 64 bit |
| Support for Aibom and Gamernium boards | ❌ | ✅ | These boards only offer comparatively slow transfer rates, SCSI2Pi is optimized for standard and fullspec boards |
| scsiloop tool | ❌ | ✅ | |
| scsimon tool | ❌ | ✅ | Removed because a lot of data to be recorded are lost |
| Up to 25% higher transfer rates | ✅ | ❌ | Measured with a Pi Zero WH (25%) and a Pi 4 (5%) |
| SASI hard drive support | ✅ | ❌ | SASI hard drive emulation, including backup/restore |
| Provessional tape drive (streamer) support, including variable block sizes and navigation |
✅ | ❌ | With tar or SIMH files as image files, support for filemarks, navigation, variable block sizes, ... |
| Tape dump/restore | ✅ | ❌ | Any tape can be converted into a SIMH-compatible image file and vice versa |
| SCSI-to-USB bridge support | ✅ | ❌ | USB mass storage devices can be used like SCSI mass storage devices, without the need for USB drivers or image files |
| Improved DaynaPort emulation, improved DaynaPort bridge |
✅ | ❌ | About 16 MB less memory consumption (important for small Pis), support for several DaynaPort emulations in the same network, creating the DaynaPort bridge can be switched off |
| Linked SCSI command support | ✅ | ❌ | Affects s2p and s2pexec |
| Variable sector sizes for hard drives | ✅ | ❌ | In multiples of 4, for exotic platforms |
| Properties and property files | ✅ | ❌ | Comfortable configuring of all settings without a command line |
| BlueSCSI compatiblity mode | ✅ | ❌ | Support of the BlueSCSI filename conventions for images |
| Configurable caching modes | ✅ | ❌ | A write-through cache, for instance, ensures always consistent image files |
| Configurable and additional mode pages | ✅ | ❌ | User-definable mode pages for optimal driver/platform compatibility, e.g. for defining the drive geometry |
| Improved initiator tools | ✅ | ❌ | Higher compatibility with the SCSI standard, new and improved tools for hard drives and streamers |
| Scripting support | ✅ | ❌ | s2pctl and s2pexec can execute command scripts generated by s2p |
| API for management with SCSI commands | ✅ | ❌ | The connected computer can control SCSI2Pi with SCSI commands |
| Improved and extended logging | ✅ | ❌ | Improved error analysis capabilities |
| Optional compilation of device types | ✅ | ❌ | Faster compilation and even smaller binaries, if not all device types are needed |
| Tool for formatting media with USB drives | ✅ | ❌ | E.g. for USB floppy disk drives, runs on any Linux system |
| Tool for analyzing and creating tape images | ✅ | ❌ | Supports SIMH-compatible tape image files, runs on Linux/BSD/macOS |
| Tool for sending SCSI commands | ✅ | ❌ | Sends any SCSI command to a device |
| Tools for advanced testing | ✅ | ❌ | Testing of SCSI commands on Linux/BSD/macOS |
| Programs can be launched without sudo | ✅ | ❌ | When installing the binary packages or after sudo make install |
| Additional functions for the SCSI Control App | ✅ | ❌ | SCSI Control offers additional features |
The SCSI2Pi news provide information on more new features.
Several PiSCSI tickets, which have been open for a long time or were closed without being processed have been addressed by SCSI2Pi.
| PiSCSI Ticket | Remark |
|---|---|
| 335 | Improved caching, optional write-through cache |
| 479 | Improved support of the SCSI commands READ/WRITE LONG |
| 480 | Tape drive (streamer) support |
| 497 | SCSI-to-USB bridge |
| 598 | Dynamic MAC address for the DaynaPort, more than one DaynaPort in the same network |
| 740 | Installation packages with binaries, installation without compiling |
| 809 | Support for SASI hard drives |
| 1098 | Evaluation of Daynaport support for NetBSD |
| 1331 | DaynaPort bridge for Bookworm |
| 1402, 1410, 1412 | DEC Alpha compatibility, abandoned in PiSCSI |