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Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) Storage

... Serial Attached SCSI readers click here for other storage news
Megabyte found it difficult adapting to the
newer thinner Serial SCSI connections.
Universal Solid State Disk USSD 200 from Solid Access Technologies with SAS, FC, SCSI or custom interfaces
fast rackmount RAM SSDs
SAS, FC & SCSI interface options
from Solid Access Technologies
...
SAS SSDs
PCI Express SSDs
SAS roadmap - 12Gbps by 2013
Are SAS Drives SF for Most Users?
Serial Attached SCSI - is it worth the wait?
Serial Attached SCSI: New Interface, New Storage Rack?
the Benefits of Serial Attached SCSI for External Subsystems
Serial Attached SCSI - Delivering Flexibility to the Data Center
sign up to see more info SSDs from Texas Memory Systems
Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) news
SMART samples 400GB 2.5" SAS eMLC SSD

Editor:- August 17, 2010 - SMART entered the crowding SAS SSD market with the announcement that it is sampling the XceedIOPS SAS SSD - a 2.5" 400GB eMLC SSD with 26,000 / 20,000 R/W IOPS and 250/230 MB/s sustained throughput.

The new XceedIOPS SAS SSD offers high reliability and data integrity due to extensive error-correction and detection capabilities, multi-level data-path and code protection, data-fail recovery, and data-integrity monitoring. Designed to minimize power surges in SSD arrays the the XceedIOPS SAS SSD supports staggered power-on.


and Super Talent... brings SAS SSD headcount to 14

Editor:- June 21, 2010 - Super Talent Technology entered the 2.5" SAS SSD market by announcing imminent shipments of its ShuttleCraft brand - which includes SLC and MLC models with capacities upto 240GB .


RunCore samples SAS SSDs

Editor:- May 7, 2010 - RunCore is now sampling (its previously announced) 2.5" and 3.5" SAS flash SSDs for the enterprise server market.

The Kylin II product line, available with MLC, EMLC or SLC flash, has R/W speeds upto 270MB/s and 260MB/s respectively, R/W IOPS of 30,000 and 25,000, upto 400GB capacity and 3 years warranty.


and Foremay - makes "lucky 13" SAS SSD oems

Editor:- April 29, 2010 - Foremay has started sampling SAS SSDs in its EC188 product line.

The new models (available in 2.5" or 3.5" form factors, and available in commercial and industrial temperature grades) have R/W speeds of 250MB/s and 200MB/s respectively, random read/write IOPS up to 30,000/25,000 and upto 400GB capacity.

That brings the number of SAS SSD companies listed on StorageSearch.com to 13.


New 8 bay SAS desktop JBOD / RAID

Editor:- April 13, 2010 - Proavio launched the EditBox EB8Sx - an 8 drive desktop SAS box (with 750MB/s internal storage bandwidth) designed for the video editing market.

A single SAS host port can connect up to 128 disks by adding additional boxes.


SAS / SATA drive array tester reviewed by Demartek

Editor:- March 22, 2010 - Quarch Technology announced that Demartek had published a report (pdf) which reviews the usability and benefits of its SAS/SATA disk array test system.

It's useful for integrators qualifying components and modules for use in new RAID systems.


Seagate adds 2TB SAS notch to 18 Years of 7,200 RPM HDDs

Editor:- February 22, 2010 - Seagate today announced it's shipping 2TB 3.5" 7,200 RPM hard drives with a 6Gbps SAS interface.

The new Constellation ES includes host-selectable power reduction options - upto 35% for slow or idle periods.

Editor's comments:- coming 6 months after 2TB SATA enterprise hard drive shipments from other hard disk oems - (Hitachi - Ultrastar A7K2000 and WD RE4 ) - the distinguishing feature about this is the SAS interface. But the "6Gbps" part is vanity rather than substance - because (like all hard drives) the magnetic media delivers lower throughput and IOPS than you can get from many common 3Gbps 2.5" SATA SSDs.

On a historical note Seagate started shipping the world's 1st 7,200 RPM HDDs in 1992.


Toshiba Spins 600GB SAS Drive

Editor:- February 16, 2010 - Toshiba today announced it's sampling a 600GB 2.5" 10K RPM HDD with 6Gbps SAS interface.

This results from the integration of Toshiba and Fujitsu's HDD business last year. Some of the new models include drive-based encryption.


LSI Samples 600k IOPS SAS ROC for SSD Servers

Editor:- December 16, 2009 - LSI announced it is sampling the LSISAS2208 - a dual-core 6Gb/sSAS RAID-on-Chip IC to OEM customers.

It's intended to support the forthcoming PCIe 3.0 specification, currently under development and provide performance levels that meet the needs of next-generation server platforms based on flash SSD storage (up to 600,000 IOPS).


WD Ships 2.5" 10K SAS HDDs

Editor:- November 3, 2009 - Western Digital announced volume shipments of its 1st 2.5" 10K RPM SAS hard drive.

The WD S25 provides up to 300 GB of high-performance storage suitable for both mission-critical enterprise server and enterprise storage applications, such as high-I/O-driven applications and configurations, as well as data centers and large data arrays.

"Our entry into the traditional-enterprise market continues the strategic expansion and diversification of WD's broad market and product portfolio, and significantly increases our addressable revenue opportunity," said John Coyne, president and CEO of WD. "As with our previous market expansion and diversification efforts, WD will approach the traditional enterprise space with the same focus on quality, customer service, technology and value that has earned us strong positions in every market we serve."

Editor's comments:- 15K RPM hard drives are obsolete for new designs - because if you want acceleration - you get more server bang per buck using 2.5" SSDs. But in the 10K area HDDs can still deliver high capacity with tolerable performance and lower cost than SSDs.

In order to optimize overall economy, reliability and performance - the well architected enterprise storage systems of the near term future will lean towards using more 10K RPM (and slower) hard drives - for bulk content - and towards using various levels of SSDs for performance. In the long term it will all be solid state - but that's still 10 years away.


Unigen Signals 2.5" SAS SSD Intent

Editor:- November 2, 2009 - Unigen announced it will manufacture a new range of flash SSDs using SSD processors from SandForce.

The 2.5" SSDs will be available with SATA or SAS interfaces.


Fusion-io Ousts SAS HDD RAID at MySpace

Editor:- October 13, 2009 - Fusion-io published a case study showing how their ioDrive SSDs helped MySpace reduce servers, claim back 50% rack space while increasing application performance and massively decreasing electrical power.

The ioDrives performed much better than the legacy SAS disk arrays, but more importantly for MySpace, they did it with much less hardware. A single ioDrive allowed MySpace to replace a 2U HP DL380 server with 1U HP DL160 server.

In the initial phase of this deployment MySpace replaced 150 of their standard load servers, recovering 150U of rack space. Additionally, the ioDrives' phenomenal performance reduced its need for heavy load servers, allowing it to permanently end-of-life 50 of 80 heavy load servers. This allowed it to recover another 65U of rack space. Reliability also increased and the Fusion-io solution is greener. Estimates suggest that the power savings alone could easily pay for the ioDrives over their lifetime.

MySpace says it plans to replace another 1,770 2U servers with Fusion-io enabled servers as they reach their end-of-life. ...read the article (pdf)

Editor's comments:-
If you ever wondered why there are so few companies making SAS SSDs - this is one of the reasons. And it's also why search volume for PCIe SSDs is now higher than that for 2.5" SSDs. See also:- Market Trends in the Rackmount SSD Market


Pliant Samples Fast 2.5" 3.5" SAS SSDs

Editor:- September 14, 2009 - Pliant Technology started sampling its Lightning family of 2.5" (150GB) and 3.5" (300GB) skinny flash SAS SSDs.

The SLC drives deliver R/W rates upto 525/340MB/s and 160,000 IOPS (for a 90% R, 10% W mix).

Editor's comments:- the realistically addressable market for native SAS SSDs in disk form factors looks a lot smaller today than 3 years ago when Pliant was founded. That's because SAS SSD opportunities have been shunted aside by PCIe SSDs and squeezed from below by fast SATA SSDs.

The result has been that SSD vendors have been reluctant to enter this part of market. But the good news for the handful of companies actually shipping such products is they don't have to worry about dozens of competitors going for every design slot. That means higher margins for the forseeable future. Pricing for a single EFD is expected to fall between $15/GB and $30/GB.


ATTO Demos 6,400MB/s HBA at IBC

Editor:- September 10, 2009 - ATTO Technology is demonstrating its 6Gb/s SAS HBAs and 8Gb/s Fibre Channel HBAs this week at IBC in Amsterdam .

Demos include a quad-channel card that delivers the fastest available Fibre Channel data transfer rate of 6,400MB/s. Storage Events, Record Breaking Storage


STEC Samples 6Gb/s SAS SSDs

Editor:- August 11, 2009 - STEC today said it will ship 6Gb/s SAS flash SSDs in both 2.5" and 3.5" form factors in Q4.

STEC's new ZeusIOPS SSDs will deliver 80,000 IOPS random read, 40,000 IOPS random write with transfer speeds of 550MB/s read and 300MB/s write.

STEC also said it's sampling a faster version of its 3.5" FC compatible SSDs.

STEC also announced a new policy of offering MLC flash in so called "enterprise class SSDs".

"While we believe our core customers will continue to rely on and demand our industry leading SLC based SSDs, it is apparent that several of our price sensitive OEM customers are now looking for SSD alternatives which only a true MLC based SSD can deliver" said Manouch Moshayedi, Chairman and CEO of STEC.

Editor's comments:- the attraction of stuffing flash SSD arrays with MLC instead of SLC is simply - price.

Fusion-io's CTO - David Flynn recently told me there is as much as a 4x difference in price between MLC and SLC NAND flash.

Proponents of MLC enterprise flash SSDs say their SSD controllers do more than simply attenuate write cycles to a level where you don't need to worry about endurance.

SandForce, for example, says its SSD processor understands chip geometries and minimizes read disturb errors.

In my view there are risks in using MLC flash in some types of enterprise apps - which go far beyond than the endurance problem - as I described in Are MLC SSDs Ever Safe in Enterprise Apps? Nevertheless there are some enterprise applications where low levels of data corruption / data loss are tolerable - for example streaming video servers. Cautious users could get the best of both worlds by partitioning their SSD accelerator zones between SLC and MLC according to the risk / reward preferences for different data sets within their applications.


Adaptec Ships Flash Cache Backup for SAS RAID Controllers

Editor:- June 24, 2009 - Adaptec today announced the availability of flash backup options for its SATA/SAS RAID controllers.

Adaptec's Zero-Maintenance Cache Protection protects data stored in controller cache for up to 10 years with no installation, monitoring, maintenance, disposal or replacement costs unlike lithium batteries.

Editor's comments:- the industry's 1st flash cache backup module for RAID controllers was announced in February 2009 by Viking Modular Solutions.


What are the Prospects for SAS SSDs?

Editor:- May 12, 2009 - how popular is SAS compared to other interfaces when it comes to reader searches for SSDs?

Form factor remains the #1 search criterion for SSDs, ever since we started tracking SSD user preferences 5 years ago. That's hardly surprising - because if the product doesn't conveniently fit into the space planned for it - then a major rethink is required. And interface type is the next main consideration - for similar reasons.

Only 6% of SSD oems market SAS compatible SSDs. That's much less than I would have expected a few years ago.

Part of the reason may be that the enterprise market is still confused and unsure about whether the best way to tackle locally connected SSDs is as small form factor disks (2.5" and 3.5"), or PCIe compatible cards or rackmounts.

Add in the recession factor - and you can see why most SSD product marketers have been playing it safe - and not rushing to offer SAS SSD product lines.

I looked at storage search volumes in April 2009 - which revealed the following.

In searches for SSDs by interface type - SAS was already 10% higher than searches for FC compatible SSDs.

SATA SSDs accounted for just over 2x as many searches as SAS SSDs. That understates the volume and popularity of SATA SSDs - but the discrepancy is explained by the fact that once a reader has found the directory for small form factor SSDs - most of the products they see already match their needs and have a SATA or PATA interface. It's only at the high end of the performance range for SFF SSDs that readers realize it's more productive to search by interface.

The real excitement in the enterprise SSD market though is being caused by the PCIe mavericks who collectively have made searches for PCIe SSDs 7x more popular than SAS SSDs. Users and system designers seem to be buying into the concept of ripping up their old ideas of what package a storage module should come in - for the extra benefit of getting faster performance.

Overall this suggests that SSDs will not follow the same interface adoption patterns set by hard drives. Users will choose whatever SSD technology gives them the best tactical options for each type of application - rather than follow a single pattern.
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SAS Market Snapshots
from storage history
.
SAS articles and whitepapers on other sites:-

roadmap:- Serial Attached SCSI - Aiming for 12G bps - by STA
Serial Attached SCSI and Serial ATA Compatibility (pdf) - by Intel
article:- SAS (Summary) - by NetworkWorld .com
Serial Attached SCSI Benefits - by HP
Serial Attached SCSI oems
Adaptec

Astek

Astute Networks

ATTO Technology

Bridgeworks

Broadcom

Catalyst Enterprises

Ciprico

Condre Storage

Data Direct Networks

Dell

Dot Hill

Enhance Technology

Foremay

Fujitsu

Hitachi

HP

IBM

ICS

Infortrend

Intel

iVivity

JMR Electronics

LSI

Marvell

Maxim

Nimbus Data Systems

Pliant Technology

PMC-Sierra

Promise Technology

QLogic

QSAN

RunCore

SANBlaze

SCSI Toolbox

SCSI Trade Association

Seagate Technology

Solid Access Technologies

STEC

StoneFly Networks

StorCase Technology

Super Micro

Super Talent Technology

Tabernus

Toshiba

TST

Western Digital

Xtore

Xyratex
still can't find it? check the acquired, dead & renamed list
RAID controllers
RAID controllers

IC's
Interface IC's

scsi converters
SCSI converters

Serial ATA
Serial ATA

Test Equipment
Test Equipment
the Benefits of SAS (Serial Attached SCSI) for External Subsystems - article by Adaptec

This introduction to Serial Attached SCSI gives you an idea of the performance, compatibilities, applications and roadmap for this new directly attached disk connection standard.

The new SAS products not only provide an upward migration path for parallel SCSI applications but also open the door to a new class of high performance high reliability enterprise systems. ...read the article
.
click for datasheet SPARC T2BC Blade Server
SPARC T2 Server
for IBM BladeCenters
from Themis Computer

Serial Attached SCSI - Delivering Flexibility to the Data Center - article by LSI Logic and Maxtor

If you think you already know SAS because you know SATA and traditional SCSI then think again.

Sometimes disruptive technologies wear an unassuming disguise. In fiction, Clark Kent, Frodo Baggins and Buffy Summers at first seem harmless, but we see them change into Superman, the Ring Bearer and the Slayer.

SAS too comes cloaked in plain garb - with a physical layer which looks a lot like SATA. But like the Incredible Hulk there are muscles rippling under that shirt - and you would be wrong to dismiss SAS so lightly. There's a lot more inside this interface than it says on the box as this informative article reveals. ...read the article

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Serial Attached SCSI

S
AS technology enables SCSI interface solutions beyond Ultra320 to the next-generation Direct Attach Storage enterprise server, storage systems, and high-performance workstation markets while retaining device-level backward compatibility. The SAS standard defines a device-level enterprise storage interface incorporating SCSI command sets, serial point-to-point interconnections, dual porting, increased addressability and the ability to scale to small form factors. Because the SAS physical layer is compatible with Serial ATA (SATA), users will have the choice of populating their systems with SAS or SATA hard disk drives, or a combination of both.

...from a joint press release by LSI Logic and Tabernus
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Serial Attached SCSI Timeline
STORAGEsearch.com was the first publication to provide a dedicated Serial Attached SCSI page in November 2001, the same month in which the new standard was first publicly announced.

The first functioning silicon for this was demonstrated in January 2004 by LSI Logic. Host Bus Adapters and chipsets supporting this new standard start shipping to storage system designers in April/May 2004 from various companies.

Here's a timeline of how SAS moved from vaporware to reality.
  • November 2004 - Serial Attached SCSI moved into the top 20 most popular subjects viewed by STORAGEsearch readers for the first time.
  • February 2005 - IBM ships SAS in x366 servers
  • May 2005 - Hitachi Ships 15K RPM SAS Hard Drives
  • June 2005 - HP announces that SAS will be used in ProLiant Dual-Core AMD Opteron-based servers
  • September 2005 - LSI Logic discloses that Dell and Sun will soon ship SAS based servers
  • October 2005 - Seagate & Adaptec Launch 1/2 Price SAS Starter Kit
  • December 2005 - Maxtor & LSI Logic Offer Rebate to Early SAS Adopters
  • January 2006 - StorCase ships first removable SAS drive enclosures.
  • July 2006 - SAS enters the top 10 storage searches by STORAGEsearch.com readers for the first time.
  • April 2007 - Hitachi announces 15k RPM, 300GB SAS HDDs.
  • April 2008 - Seagate Technology starts volume shipments of 7,200 RPM SAS compatible terabyte HDDs.
Why is the new standard necessary?

Without faster storage - typically upto 50% of the potential performance in modern server processors is wasted.

Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) provides a software compatible upgrade for directly attached SCSI storage which provides much higher performance than Ultra320 SCSI. So this is the least pain next step for SCSI users. Although, as with all new technology there is a learning curve.

The popularity of Internet SCSI (iSCSI) protocol products in the second half of 2003 proved that the base of server owners who are familiar with SCSI - will go a long way to adopt new connectivity options which leverage concepts they trust and are familiar with. Asimilar evolution took place with Ethernet, which started as a 3Mbps standard and still looks viable at 10Gbps. Computer users like stuff that is newer faster and cheaper, but we all know that "newer" also means "buggier" if we are the first users. Anything that reduces the amount of new code and risk along the way gets our vote.

SAS will meet the threat (albeit late in marketing terms) from Serial ATA (SATA), FireWire and USB 2. In fact SAS uses the same electrical interface and cables as SATA. That's good news if you're worried about stocking even more types of cables. It also simplifies the rollout of new test equipment - because products designed for SATA can be adapted to SAS more simply (in theory by firmware upgrades.)

20+ years ago, when SCSI started, it suited the clock speeds and cable transmission driving capabilities of the TTL compatible logic which was the standard at the time. SCSI was also easy to connect using standard low technology ribbon cable. Since then, most of the enhancements in the SCSI standard have focused on getting it to work faster, using higher clock speeds, a wider data bus, lower logic levels and differential signals.

Serial Attached SCSI is the first real attempt in SCSI history to lower cost and simplify the physical connection. Past performance upgrades came from increasing the number of cable cores. But the new high speed serial SCSI cables should be cheaper than the lower performance parallel SCSI ones which they replace. And you won't have to worry any more about those termination nightmares. It's simpler in a serial system to automatically monitor signal quality and dyamically adjust to the cable and connector transmission characteristics.

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