Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) is rapidly evolving with new Zone Block Command feature for enhanced capabilities in enterprise storage deployments

SAN FRANCISCO – January 27, 2015 — The SCSI Trade Association (STA) (http://www.scsita.org/), a member-run industry association established to support and promote SCSI technology, today announced its newly elected Board of Directors for 2015. The entire board roster was reelected.

Returning officers include STA President Martin Czekalski of Seagate Technology and Greg McSorley of Amphenol, who serves as Vice President. Rick Kutcipal of Avago returns to the board as Secretary, and Chet Mercado of HGST was elected Treasurer.

“2014 was notable for the robust rollout of 12Gb/s SAS products in production volumes,” said Marty Czekalski, Interface Architecture Initiatives Manager, Seagate Technology and President, STA. “STA also hosted its 16th Plugfest in 2014, the fourth that was devoted to 12Gb/s SAS, further demonstrating that SAS answers the call for ‘no compromise’ system performance, connectivity and scalability in enterprise storage.”

INCITS T10 Committee Releases Zoned Block Command Feature to Letter Ballot
STA also announced the International Committee for Information Technology Standards (INCITS) Technical Committee T10 is finalizing its work on the Zoned Block Command specification of 12Gb/s Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) and has completed letter ballot. It is expected to be forwarded to INCITS shortly after comments have been resolved.

The new Zoned Block Command feature will enable more efficient use of Shingled Magnetic Recording (SMR) for increased density in hard disk drives (HDDs) as well as potential capabilities for more efficient use of solid state disks (SSDs) in storage applications.

A letter ballot marks a milestone in the standardization process. In addition to the significance of this event in formalizing the specification, it also signals the beginning of the implementation phase during which companies will finalize their designs.

2015 Officers of the STA Board of Directors:

• President: Martin Czekalski, Interface Architecture Initiatives Manager, Seagate Technology
• Vice President: Greg McSorley, Technical Business Development Manager, Amphenol
• Treasurer: Chet Mercado, Technical Marketing Engineer/Third Party Alliance, HGST, a Western Digital Company
• Secretary: Rick Kutcipal, External Storage Market Segment Lead, Avago Technologies

STA Board Members-at-Large:

• David Allen, Director Product Marketing, PMC-Sierra
• Cameron Brett, Director of SSD Product Marketing, Toshiba America Electronic Components
• Mike James, Director, Engineering, Enterprise Storage Solutions, SanDisk
• Gary McCulley, Product Line Manager, Storage Group, Intel Corporation
• Jay Neer, Industry Standards Manager, Molex

STA is also pleased to welcome Wieson Technologies as the latest member to join its organization to promote and contribute to the evolution of SCSI. For more information on becoming a member, visit http://www.scsita.org/join-the-scsi-trade-association.html.

The current STA Membership roster:

About STA
The SCSI Trade Association (STA) was established in 1996 to provide a focal point for members to communicate the benefits of SCSI to the industry. STA promotes the understanding and use of Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) technology and influences the evolution of SCSI standards to meet future industry needs. The Association has a nine-member Board of Directors, which oversees the Marketing Communications and Technology Committees and all STA activities. 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.

Media Contact:
Linda Capcara
TechTHiNQ
480-229-7090
linda.capcara@techthinq.com

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