News

posted on 07 May 2008 09:20

The first demonstration of full server-to-drive SAS connectivity at the 6Gbit/s rate has been made by Dell, LSI, and Seagate.

SAS 2, as 6Gbit/s SAS is known doubles the first SAS data rate of 3Gbit/s and takes SAS hard disk drives (HDD) beyond the 4Gbit/s Fibre Channel HDD interface.

In this technology demonstration, a prototype DEll seever was used, fitted with LSI SAS2108 PCI Express 2.0 to 6Gbit/s SAS RAID-On-Chip and SAS2x36 6Gbit/s SAS expander, and with Seagate 6Gbit/s and 3Gbit/s SAS and 3Gbit/s SATA hard disk drives. The demonstration involved performing both read and write I/Os at full bandwidth and showed backward compatibility with the current 3 Gbit/s SAS interface.

Hitachi GST and PMC-Sierra had earlier demonstrated a drive-to-chipset link http://www.blocksandfiles.com/article/4994 as have Seagate and PMC-Sierra. http://www.blocksandfiles.com/article/4685

Dave Reinsel, storage and semiconductor research VP at IDC, opined: "A successful demonstration of 6Gbit/s SAS interoperability ... will be a clear indication that product engineering, validation and interoperability testing is progressing well, and paves the way for production volumes in late 2009."

Howard Shoobe, a senior manager in Dell storage product management, said: "We want to help customers by bringing end-to-end 6Gbit/s throughput as well as the security and reliability which come along with this next generation of SAS."

New features and functionality delivered with 6Gbit/s SAS include:

- Spread Spectrum Clocking to reduce EMI emissions;
- Decision Feedback Equalisation for a more reliable link at 6Gb/s data rates;
- Standardised zoning; and
- Self-configuring expanders

IT professionals can expect a complete 6Gbit/s SAS ecosystem of servers, hard disk drives, and IC and board components to be tested and broadly available prior to wide-spread industry adoption.

We can expect other 2.5-inch drive manufacturers to introduce SAS 2 drives as well as the interface being added to other suppliers' RAID controllers.

_{[Paul Roberts, news editor.]}