Host adapter

[2] Typically a device driver, linked to the operating system, controls the host adapter itself.

In a typical parallel SCSI subsystem, each device has assigned to it a unique numerical ID.

The term host bus adapter (HBA) may be used to refer to a Fibre Channel interface card.

[2] Fibre Channel HBAs are available for open systems, computer architectures, and buses, including PCI and SBus (obsolete today).

Each Fibre Channel HBA has a unique World Wide Name (WWN), which is similar to an Ethernet MAC address in that it uses an OUI assigned by the IEEE.

The term host channel adapter (HCA) is usually used to describe InfiniBand interface cards.

The correct term for the component that allows a computer to talk to a peripheral bus is host adapter [citation needed].

[citation needed] Protocols used by channel I/O to communicate with peripheral devices include ESCON and newer FICON.