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Author: Mike Micheletti, Product Manager
LeCroy Corporation

Now that component vendors Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) are shipping in volume, storage integrators are rolling up their sleeves to begin evaluating this powerful new storage interface. Anxious to harness superior performance, these SAS developers are testing hosts, devices and storage subsystems for compatibility and reliability. Early adopters are impressed to see their legacy SCSI applications running on top of SAS storage volumes without modification. But is SAS robust enough to replace parallel SCSI in mission critical applications?

Author: Jim Pascoe, Hitachi Corporate Communications, interviewed Gary Goodwin, Firmware Development Engineer Hitachi Global Storage Technologies

In the following interview, Gary Goodwin of Hitachi Global Storage Technologies (Hitachi GST) reviews some of the key issues related to Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) scalability and how systems integrators (SIs) and other end-users deploying SAS-based storage are expected to benefit from the transition from parallel SCSI to SAS.

Gary Goodwin is a firmware development engineer at Hitachi GST with an extensive knowledge of Ultra320 SCSI, Fibre Channel and SAS. He has had a long career working with computer storage interface technologies. SIs will benefit from Gary's expertise presented in question and answer format.

Author: David Woolf - Senior Technical Staff
University of New Hampshire InterOperability Lab

When it comes to data storage and protection, small and medium businesses (SMBs) often find themselves not knowing where to turn for data storage solutions. They are torn between high-end product offerings intended for large enterprises, or trying to piece together a data storage solution from products intended for home users.

Like a large enterprise, a small or medium business has increasing data storage needs as the business grows. Data is a critical part of any business. Also like a large enterprise, a small business needs scalability, backup, and possibly some form of information life-cycle management (ILM).

In many cases the best solution for these needs is a storage area network (SAN), but SANs are expensive. Although the price for SAN equipment is decreasing, the high cost of the initial investment remains, making it prohibitive for a small business. An SMB does not always have the resources necessary to devote to an IT staff to support its storage needs. SMBs need a storage technology that allows flexibility, ease of use, and a lower total cost of ownership.

Rachelle Trent, SAS Product Marketing Manager, PMC-Sierra

As enterprise storage requirements rapidly increase, expanding data throughput and providing scalable storage capacity is crucial. System Integrators (SIs) need to understand the new features of expander devices now, in order to be ready for market adoption of Serial Attached SCSI (SAS). The SAS standard specifies expanders, which are inexpensive switch devices connecting SAS hosts to SAS targets as shown in Figure 1 below.

Figure 1: A SAS Expander performs a data switching function between multiple hosts and target devices.

By Rachelle Trent
PMC-Sierra

As enterprise storage requirements rapidly increase, expanding data throughput and providing scalable storage capacity is crucial. One of the goals of Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) was to overcome the scalability limitations of parallel SCSI and significantly improve the ability to add hard disk drives to a system. Parallel SCSI is a shared bus architecture that utilizes common connection paths between devices. The shared connection limits scalability, and adding more buses with multiple initiators does little to extend the scalability.

Author: Rachelle Trent
PMC-Sierra

As enterprise storage requirements rapidly increase, expanding data throughput and providing scalable storage capacity is crucial. System Integrators (SIs) need to understand the advantages and architecture of devices called "expanders" now, in order to be ready for market adoption of Serial Attached SCSI (SAS). The SAS standard specifies expanders, which are inexpensive switch devices connecting SAS hosts to SAS targets as shown in Figure 1 below.

Figure 1: SAS Expanders Perform Data Switching Functions Between Multiple Hosts and Target Devices.

Author: Mike Micheletti, Product Manager
LeCroy Corporation

With Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) products now entering the market, system integrators and storage vendors are accelerating their transition to serial-based storage infrastructure. By taking the lead on delivering SAS-based solutions, these vendors can build high performance sub-systems while developing valuable expertise in this next generation direct-attach storage technology.

As storage integrators ramp their SAS design and validation efforts, they may benefit from using specialized test equipment to accelerate product qualification. Below are three protocol-level test tools that are playing a key role in validating SAS components as ready for enterprise-worthy applications.

PMC-Sierra was interviewed by a System Integrator about Serial Attached SCSI's Cable and Connector Features and Uses

Author: Rachelle Trent, Product Marketing Manager
PMC-Sierra
All Figures are courtesy of Molex

The challenges that System Integrators (SIs) encounter when learning how to handle new technologies, new components and especially how to make everything work together, requires research and experience. It helps them acquire the knowledge they need if they have a series of demonstrations of cables and connectors and their uses. The purpose of this article is to provide a mini-demo through the use of illustrations that are clear and easy to understand.

Author: Paul Griffith
Adaptec, Inc.

Today’s system builders must develop, test, qualify, inventory and sell separate subsystem backplanes to meet their customers’ needs for storage of reference and transactional data. Distributors and IT managers must also deal with the inefficiencies of separate systems. Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) will enable computer makers to build a single system that supports disk drives for both data types, reducing development costs. For customers, standardizing on one server and storage infrastructure will increase storage flexibility and reduce total ownership costs.