Usability and Flexibility

Ease your service and build efforts and expand your data center configuration options with 6Gb/s SAS. With new policies for hot plug and reset event handling, 6Gb/s SAS makes adding and removing SAS and SATA hard disk drives (HDDs) a seamless process. Combine this with a new speed negotiation window for ensured compatible links, and table-to-table routing to simplify cabling and you get more robust systems with less risk of implementation errors. With new longer 10-meter cables and SATA support, 6Gb/s SAS adds flexibility to data center layouts. Furthermore, 6Gb/s SAS decreases the time spent building and fixing your data center so that more time can be spent running applications.

SATA devices and protocols are designed for localized connectivity and single host environments. SAS compatibility enables SATA devices in SAS storage systems, but this has not always been a very smooth relationship. 6Gb/s SAS enhances support for SATA devices in multi-host environments by providing multi-affiliation support, where SAS Tunneling Protocol (STP) functions manage the interaction of more than one host with each SATA device

6Gb/s SAS Ease of Use

Feature	Benefit
Improved hot-plug and reset event handling	Seamless addition and removal of SAS and SATA hard disk drives (HDDs)
Table-to-table routing	No need for keyed cables
Spread spectrum clocking (SSC)	Simple Electro Magnetic Interference (EMI) qualification
New speed negotiation window (SNW-3)	Compatible link establishment More control over link characteristics: SSC on or off, speed multiplexing on or off Defines specific subsets of speeds, SSC, and multiplexing
SAS and SATA support	Mix and match 6G/3G/1.5G SAS and SATA drives
Multi-affiliation	Support for redundant controller and multi-host connections to a SATA hard disk drive (HDD)
10-meter cables	Increased data center flexibility Improved SAS fabric usability and user experience