SAS Storage Architecture: Serial Attached SCSI

SAS (Serial Attached SCSI) is the serial storage interface that has been designed to replace and upgrade SCSI, by far the most popular storage interface for high-performance systems for many years. Retaining backward compatibility with the millions of lines of code written to support SCSI devices, SAS incorporates recent advances in high-speed serial design to provide better performance, better reliability and enhanced capabilities, all at a lower cost. SAS will be a significant part of many future high-performance storage systems, and hardware designers, system validation engineers, device driver developers and others working in this area will need a working knowledge of it. SAS Storage Architecture provides a comprehensive guide to the SAS standard. The book contains descriptions and numerous examples of the concepts presented, using the same building block approach as other MindShare offerings. This book details important concepts relating to the design and implementation of storage networks. Specific topics of interest include: SATA Compatibility Expander devices Discovery Process Connection protocols Arbitration of competing connection requests Flow Control protocols ACK/NAK protocol Primitives construction and uses Frames format, definition, used of each field Error checking mechanisms Description of responsibilities for each layer: Application layer mode and log pages Transport Layer frame construction Port Layer call center model Link Layer establish and maintain connections Phy Layer OOB, Initialization, and Reset Physical Layer connectors and cables Serial Support serial transmission support requirements The future of SAS competition with SATA and Fibre Channel in the server marketplace