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Hitachi Announces 6Gb/s End-to-End SAS Products

The advancement is part of its collaboration with PMC-Sierra

May 5, 2008 14:56 GMT  ·  By
The breakthrough will allow system integrators to design a 6Gb/s end-to-end architecture
   The breakthrough will allow system integrators to design a 6Gb/s end-to-end architecture

Hitachi Global Storage Technologies and PMC-Sierra have jointly announced the complete integration of PMC-Sierra's end-to-end Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) 6Gb/s chipsets and Hitachi's SAS 6Gb/s prototype hard-disk drives.

"PMC-Sierra is committed to ensuring full interoperability with 6Gb/s components to reduce the time to market and transition seamlessly to 6Gb/s SAS/SATA systems", said Travis Karr, vice president of marketing for PMC-Sierra's enterprise storage division.

"PMC-Sierra has been very impressed by the quality and maturity of Hitachi's 6Gb/s SAS technology, which translated directly into successful interoperability between PMC-Sierra's end-to-end 6Gb/s SAS chipset and Hitachi 6Gb/s SAS HDDs", he continued.

According to the two companies, the PMC-Sierra's 6Gb/s SAS chipsets include the Tachyon SPC 8x6G SAS protocol controller as well as the 8x6G RAID-on-Chip controller. However, Hitachi did not disclose further details about its custom-built SAS-2 hard-disk drive.

The joint venture also said that the SAS 6Gb/s hard drives and all the hardware components in the infrastructure will preserve backwards-compatibility with the already introduced SAS 3Gb/s storage devices.

"The increased transfer rate of the new 6Gb/s SAS interface is critical to satisfying our enterprise customers' continuing appetite for performance enhancements. Hitachi is pleased to have collaborated with PMC-Sierra and demonstrated interoperability with our respective 6Gb/s SAS products.", claimed Currie Munce, vice president of the enterprise HDD business group, Hitachi Global Storage Technologies.

The new 6Gb/s SAS hard-disk drives come with enhanced scalability, availability and reliability, three critical aspects in an enterprise-level storage device. The two companies' achievements allow server and storage system equipment manufacturers to integrate an end-to-end architecture operating at full 6Gb/s.

"These collaborations will help pave the way for a seamless industry transition to the new interface standard", continued Munce.