November 26, 2008 -- The SCSI Trade Association recently held the ninth Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) plugfest at the University of New Hampshire InterOperability Lab. STA members and non-members attended the plugfest, the association said.
"Participation in the recent 6-Gbit/sec SAS plugfest was outstanding," said Harry Mason, president of the SCSI Trade Association. "Not only did we have companies that have never participated in a SAS plugfest previously, but new categories of SAS devices were introduced and tested. It's exciting to see the support being generated around the market introduction of 6-Gbit/sec SAS. It reflects the growing, as well as deeper, usage of SAS in enterprise storage solutions."
"New-generation 6-Gbit/sec SAS devices underwent significant physical-layer testing to prepare for 6-Gbit/sec SAS industry leadership," added mike Fitzpatrick, chair of the SAS Plugfest Technical Committee.
The plugfest included extensive pair-testing, which allowed companies to pair up in a round-robin test plan with various partners to determine compatibility and functionality. The large-build test involved bringing all participating companies together in a multi-initiator environment, in which multiple initiators were interconnected with multiple expanders—which in turn were interconnected with multiple storage enclosures. Within the storage enclosures, 6-Gbit/sec SAS drives were mixed with 3-Gbit/sec SAS and SATA drives to prove not only interoperability in systems running at 6-Gbits/sec, but also backward compatibility with legacy products.