Maxtor and LSI Logic in SAS demo first
Maxtor and LSI Logic in SAS demo first
Maxtor Corporation and LSI Logic have undertaken the industry's first public demonstration of data exchange between Serial ATA (SATA) and Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) hard drives via SAS controllers and expanders, in what they are heralding as a major step towards productivity of the next generation of SCSI technology.
The interoperability demonstration included Maxtor MaXLine SATA drives and Maxtor's prototype SAS hard drives in conjunction with LSI Logic SAS controller and SAS expander prototypes.
"The significance of the interoperability of these technologies is that it validates that SATA and SAS hard drives can be used together in a single storage system," said Kevin Wittmer, director of technical marketing for Maxtor's Server Products Group. "This allows IT managers to create pools of storage based on a combination of SATA and SAS hard drives that can be allocated to applications based on performance, availability, capacity, and cost requirements."
The demonstration showed SCSI write/read command pairs being executed using full Serial Attached SCSI Protocol (SSP) to the prototype SAS drive, and full Serial ATA Tunneling Protocol (STP) and SATA protocol to the SATA drive. It also included the Serial Management Protocol (SMP), which is used for discovery and expander management.
"This is the first ever demonstration of four key protocols operating simultaneously," said David Steele, director of product planning and management for the LSI Logic storage standard product division. "By being able to demonstrate a practical implementation of SAS and SATA interoperability, LSI Logic and Maxtor have moved next-generation SCSI technology another step closer to real product availability."
SAS is the next generation of the SCSI interface. It has been developed to improve storage system performance, scalability, and availability while providing compatibility with high-capacity Serial ATA (SATA) drives and dual port, high performance SAS drives.
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