12-Gbit/s SAS Pushes The Storage Envelope

Feb. 16, 2012
PMC-Sierra’s Tachyon SPCv-12G controllers and SRCv-12G RoC (RAID-on-chip) controllers push the 12 Gbit/s SAS boundaries.

SAS (Serial Attached SCSI) dominates the enterprise, which always needs more storage—and faster storage. The 12-Gbit/s SAS standard will help deliver faster performance, and PMC-Sierra is poised to give users that advantage with a line of chips that covers controllers, SAS expanders, and RAID-on-Chip (RoC) silicon. The faster interface speed is especially important for flash storage, which was pushing the bounds of 6-Gbit/s SAS and SATA.

Designed for external storage systems, PMC-Sierra’s Tachyon SPCv-12G protocol controllers push the processing limit past 2 million IOPS and double the throughput compared to the current 6-Gbit/s SAS generation. The chips are available in eight- and 16-port versions and support PCI Express Gen 3 x8 interfaces.

The family also supports integrated StorClad encryption technology, which features line-rate AES-XTS encryption. This enables the use of standard, non-encrypting drives while providing a more secure operating environment. Additionally, the chips support wide-port target mode and the Enterprise T10 DIF data integrity field.

SAS expanders are the typical method for connecting a large number of drives to a controller. PMC-Sierra’s SXP-12G SAS/SATA expanders are available in 24-, 26-, 48-, and 68-port versions. They can handle 3G/6G SAS/SATA devices as well as 12G SAS devices plus optical SAS with very low switch latency.

The expanders also support 4K SAS addresses. The high-density 48- and 68-port versions allow a single chip to handle an entire system while a pair provides redundant access to the array. An on-chip MIPS processing core boosts system performance and handles physical-layer (PHY) power management. A 10/100 Ethernet media access controller (MAC) interface provides out-of-band management support.

Meanwhile, the SRCv-12G RoC chips incorporate the latest host, drive, and memory interface standards. The DDR3 2133-MHz memory controller provides a battery-backed cache. Also, the RoC chips have a PCI Express Gen 3 x8 interface and are available in eight- and 16-port versions. They support 1.5G/3G/6G SAS and SATA interfaces along with 12G SAS interfaces. Hardware RAID acceleration support handles RAID 0, 1, 5, 50, 6, and 60 configurations.

Expect PMC-Sierra’s chips to show up in the company’s Adaptec host bus adapters in the future. This is one area where the new, proposed Mini-SAS HD connectors may come into play.

PMC-Sierra
www.pmc-sierra.com

Sponsored Recommendations

Highly Integrated 20A Digital Power Module for High Current Applications

March 20, 2024
Renesas latest power module delivers the highest efficiency (up to 94% peak) and fast time-to-market solution in an extremely small footprint. The RRM12120 is ideal for space...

Empowering Innovation: Your Power Partner for Tomorrow's Challenges

March 20, 2024
Discover how innovation, quality, and reliability are embedded into every aspect of Renesas' power products.

Article: Meeting the challenges of power conversion in e-bikes

March 18, 2024
Managing electrical noise in a compact and lightweight vehicle is a perpetual obstacle

Power modules provide high-efficiency conversion between 400V and 800V systems for electric vehicles

March 18, 2024
Porsche, Hyundai and GMC all are converting 400 – 800V today in very different ways. Learn more about how power modules stack up to these discrete designs.

Comments

To join the conversation, and become an exclusive member of Electronic Design, create an account today!