September 26-30 Plugfest at University of New Hampshire InterOperability Lab Highlights Large-system Builds and SAS/SATA Interoperability
San Francisco, October 24, 2005 - The SCSI Trade Association (STA), a member-run industry association established to support and promote SCSI technology, and the University of New Hampshire InterOperability Laboratory (UNH-IOL), announced today that the second Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) plugfest of 2005 was held September 26-30. The test emphasis was on large-system builds to further enhance the performance and interoperability of SAS-based systems. Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) and Serial ATA (SATA) interoperability testing was again included. Eighteen companies, primarily STA members, attended the plugfest (see page two for a list of the attending STA members).
The highlight of the plugfest was the large system build, using components from several vendors and consisting of 120 attached devices including 3Gb/s SATA drives in addition to SAS drives. Several stable configurations of the large system build were successfully tested. Host Bus Adaptors (HBAs) from three vendors were tested in the large system.
The second test track was the first formal SATA compatibility test in a SAS system. A complete mini-system was assembled, composed of an HBA, expander, interposer card and disk drive. SATA interposer cards were used within SAS enclosures as an active multiplexer, allowing a single-port SATA drive to support dual connections within a SAS enclosure, thereby creating a failover path to each disk drive. The SATA drives and interposer cards performed at 3Gb/s.
"This is the second SAS plugfest in which large systems builds have been implemented and tested, indicating the maturity of the technology and SAS component interoperability at the system level," stated Harry Mason, President of STA and Director of Industry Marketing at LSI Logic. "The power and performance of the large SAS system matched expectations and the SATA compatibility test at 3Gb/s was highly successful. The use of the UNH-IOL facilities and the support and expertise of the IOL staff was essential to the plugfest's success."
Mike Karp, Senior Analyst, Enterprise Management Associates, said, "STA has done everything it could to develop and prepare SAS for the storage market. They made SAS and SATA physically compatible and integrated selected features from other storage standards to create a highly functional storage interconnect. System builders now have a single technology base on which they can efficiently build a flexible set of products that will appeal to just about every tier of storage."
"At each plugfest we've seen a greater level of stability, especially
in the large builds," said David Woolf, UNH-IOL senior
research and development engineer, storage technologies.
"We're also beginning to test more complex SAS Systems.
This plugfest was the first time we included SATA
drives in the large system build. We've also started
testing new SAS physical interconnects. Each plugfest
is taking the technology a step further. We're not
just proving that one SAS device can connect to another,
we're proving that large SAS systems are viable and
stable.”
SAS market entry is the result of three years of preparation; including development of the SAS technology, finalizing and standardization of the specifications, testing, and finally the anticipated market entry of SAS storage systems this fall. Testing for SAS interoperability during development and early product introductions has virtually eliminated interoperability and compatibility problems. Additional plugfests are planned for 2006.
About STA
The SCSI Trade Association was established in 1995 to provide
a focal point for members to communicate the benefits
of SCSI to the industry. STA promotes the understanding
and use of SCSI technology and influences the evolution
of SCSI standards to meet future industry needs. The
Association has a nine-member Board of Directors that
oversees the Marketing Communications and Technology
Committees and all STA activities. To subscribe to
Serial Storage Wire, STA's free Serial Attached SCSI
newsletter, please visit: serialstoragewire.com. For
more information, please visit the STA web site at
http://www.scsita.org,
send an email to info@scsita.org
or call the STA office at 415-561-6273.
About UNH-IOL
Established in 1988, the University of New Hampshire InterOperabiity
Laboratory (UNH-IOL) is a non-profit organization
that offers comprehensive interoperability and performance-based
testing through 19 technology-based groups called
consortiums. Test solutions created at the UNH-IOL
offer a set of methods to increase interoperability
through protocol operations, signaling, point-to-point
and multi-system scenarios. For more information,
visit the UNH-IOL website at http://www.iol.unh.edu.
STA Member Companies Attending the Plugfest
Adaptec
Catalyst Enterprises
Emulex
EqualLogic
Finisar
Fujitsu CPA
Intel
LeCroy/CATC
|
LSI Logic
Maxtor
Molex
PMC-Sierra
Promise Technology
Seagate
Vitesse Semiconductor |
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