STA Announces SAS Storage Milestones 

SCSI Trade Association (STA) today announced two 12Gb/s SAS storage interface technology milestones, signaling the technology's continued success in meeting these industry needs.

First, STA reported the T10 Technical Committee forwarded the SAS 3 specification, which includes 12Gb/s SAS, to the InterNational Committee on Information Technology Standards (INCITS). This move marks the final phase of the 12Gb/s SAS specification.

STA also reported record participation and the successful completion of its 15^th Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) Plugfest event heldOctober 21-26, 2013, at the University of New Hampshire InterOperability Laboratory (UNH-IOL).  The event marked the third Plugfest organized by STA that focused on 12Gb/s SAS technology.

Twenty-seven companies, including both STA members and non-members, conducted testing at the Plugfest to verify their SAS solutions preserve existing storage investments, deliver a favorable end-user experience, demonstrate interoperability and support both forward and backward compatibility.

The robust turn-out at the Plugfest followed a number of industry and STA member announcements in 2013 of volume deployment of 12Gb/s SAS products.

"SAS is a proven storage interface based on the SCSI protocol that has the stability to tackle the most critical storage demands, without unnecessary complexities and integration challenges," said Marty Czekalski, president of the SCSI Trade Association and Interface and Emerging Architecture Program manager, Seagate. "As expected, this Plugfest insured interoperability of 12Gb/s SAS products and demonstrated a high degree of stability that instills continued confidence in the ecosystem and infrastructure."

The 15^th STA Plugfest was highlighted by the following activities:

• Physical level testing of 12Gb/s SAS technology
• Interoperability testing of SAS products, including SAS Initiators, Host Bus Expanders and SAS targets such as Hard Disk Drives (HDDs), Solid State Drives (SSDs), Solid State Hybrid Drives, and enclosures for these devices
• Compatibility testing of hosts with multiple device types including SSDs and HDDs running at 12Gb/s SAS
• Interoperability ramifications of the transmitter and receiver training algorithms inherent in the specification
• Testing of SFF-8680 SAS and the SAS portion of the SFF-8639 multi-function backplane connector
• Testing of the new 12Gb/s SAS managed cable capability that allows each port to support short passive copper cables, active cables and optical cables up to 100m
• Testing of the latest 12Gb/s SAS PHY power saving modes during times of no link activity
• Testing of the latest12Gb/s SAS test and measuring equipment and protocol analyzers

"With the emergence of 12Gb/s SAS technology, the market is demanding much more from the SAS interconnect to service these more complex storage systems," said Greg McSorley, vice president of the SCSI Trade Association and Business Development manager, Amphenol. "The need to manage these large topologies becomes critical, as does the increasing need for substantially longer cabling distances. As such, the SAS community has responded with advanced solutions that were validated and tested during this Plugfest."