Combine all your external gear with the audio software in your computer. Foldback to performing musicians with effects and zero latency without using an external mixer. Route things where you want (devices and connections) with drag and drop ease. Design your hookups visually.
If you're host is running out of power, but you have plenty of spare DSP, then run your reverbs, virtual instruments etc on Scope instead of in your sequencer. If you're running out of DSP, then run some native effects (channel EQ, compression etc) in your sequencer and turn them off in your Scope mixer. In short, wherever there is a crossover of functionality between host plugins and DSP plugins, you have the choice of which resource to use.  Grow your Host or your DSP system - or both - the choice is yours.
There are a plethora of extra devices you can purchase for Scope, and many others available for free. If you have a spare PCI slot its easy to add another card and Scope automatically makes the additional DSP power available to your projects. Device developers work closely with forum members so the development is user driven.
Scope comes in 2 Flavours:  PCI internal and PCIe External Rack Unit. XITE-1 comes with massive amounts of DSP and connects to your PC via PCIe connector, or laptop by ExpressCard.  XITE-1 is ideal for Live and Studio work. The older PCI cards are still for sale new and will be usable for years to come, so keep your PCI based computer or obtain one now as they will become harder to get.  Due to card owners updating to XITE-1, there are many PCI card bargains to be had. Software Support for the PCI cards will be maintained as Scope goes 64 bit and beyond.