[Pc_Support] Serial Attached SCSI (SAS)

[Bryan J. Smith]

LSI Logic has an entire series of SAS HBAs now that start at $200:  
http://www.lsilogic.com/storage_home/products_home/host_bus_adapters/sas_hbas/index.html
 

Most of these HBAs are "intelligent ASICs" that also due hardware
RAID-0, 1, 1E and 10E ("E" being where you stripe on a mirror --
e.g., 2-disc RAID-0+1).

Virtually every drive available in SCSI or FC can be found for the
same price in SAS, including 15Krpm drives.  The switching and
performance of the interconnect is _superior_.  Length (8m) is also
better than U160/320 LVD SCSI, and more flexible with x1** or x4
connectors.

**x1 is SATA compatible, although the length drops to 1m if you use
commodity SATA devices, cabling and even backplanes.

I don't see any reason to put in SCSI drives anymore.  SAS is
leveraging the commodity of SATA, and even SAS x4 backplanes are not
that costly -- largely because it's far less traces and signal issues
than 80-pin SCA LVD SCSI.  There are also no termination details (1
device per channel).

And then it gives you multi-targetting capability.


-- 
Bryan J. Smith   Professional, Technical Annoyance
b.j.smith at ieee.org    http://thebs413.blogspot.com
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