What Happens at Recent SCSI Trade Association Eighth SAS Plugfest?

SCSI Trade Association (STA), a member-run industry association established to support and promote SCSI technology, announced that the eighth Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) plugfest was held June 16-19, 2008, at the University of New Hampshire InterOperability Laboratory (UNH-IOL). The plugfest was attended by both STA member and non-member companies. STA members attending were: Amphenol, Emulex, Finisar, Fujitsu CPA, HP, Hitachi GST, LeCroy, LSI, Marvell
Semiconductor, Maxim, Molex, PMC-Sierra, Quellan, Samsung, Seagate, Tyco
Electronics, Western Digital and Xyratex.

Tests made available to attendees included:

A large-system build with 3Gb/s SAS products
6Gb/s SAS PHY testing
Mixed SAS and SATA environments
Legacy compatibility testing

"Since our last plugfest in June, 2007, new companies, new products and product refinements have entered the market, including a few early 6Gb/s SAS next-generation prototypes," said Harry Mason, President of SCSI Trade Association and Director of Industry Marketing for LSI. "The plugfest is a good industry vehicle for putting SAS and even SATA products through their paces and building confidence in products that are often deployed in a wide variety of systems."

Mike Fitzpatrick, Senior Research Executive, Fujitsu Computer Products of America, and Chairperson of the SAS Plugfest Technical Committee, stated: "The first plugfest in almost a year included several next-generation SAS prototypes along with current-generation 3Gb/s SAS products. The large-system build was a critical test of 3Gb/s SAS functionality and interoperability. It allowed new products, and products that have been revised, to be tested in environments with other products from component suppliers. Second generation 6Gb/s SAS devices underwent significant physical layer testing, which goes a long way in establishing baseline interoperability and prepares the industry for the upcoming 6Gb/s SAS plugfest later this year."

Backward compatibility is key to the SAS user’s ability to easily mix and match SAS and SATA generations including 1.5Gb/s and 3Gb/s SATA and to minimize storage costs.

The next SAS plugfest has been scheduled for the week of Nov. 10, 2008, and will be the industry’s first official 6Gb/s SAS plugfest. In addition to expanding 6Gb/s physical layer testing, products will be paired and tested for baseline interoperability, and if successful, will be included in a large-system build with other 6Gb/s SAS controllers, expanders, and storage devices. Legacy compatibility will also be tested.