scope:

This part of ISO/IEC 9318 describes the logical level (generic level) interface for tape drives and it provides a definition of the device-generic portion of a family of standards called the Intelligent Peripheral Interface (IPI). The purpose of this standard is to facilitate the development and utilization of an intelligent interface which permits the interconnection of multiple peripheral types such as disk, tape and communications to a controller. The intent of the IPI is to isolate the host (CPU), both hardware and software, from changes in peripherals by providing a "function-generic" command set to allow the connection of multiple types of peripherals (disks, printers, tapes, communications). To smooth the transition from the current methods to the generic approach, the IPI supports device-specific command sets to aid in bridging the gap between the two approaches.