SATA and SAS Technology Overview
SATA and SAS Technology Overview is a 2-day training course that covers the fundamentals of SAS (Serial-Attached SCSI) and SATA (Serial ATA). SATA and SAS are among two technologies that computers use to transfer data from the motherboard to storage, and vice versa. Both technologies do roughly the same thing, but each is built with different hardware.
SAS is generally more expensive, and it’s better suited for use in servers or in processing heavy computer workstations. SATA is less expensive, and it’s better suited for desktop file storage.
The use of SATA hard drives on SAS controllers is made possible by the fact that both share
the same infrastructure and have similar features. SATA drives may be plugged into SAS
controllers. SAS drives cannot be plugged into SATA controllers.
This new course covers the SATA and SAS hardware design specification, software requirements of SATA and SAS implementations and Advanced Host Controller Interface (AHCI).
Learning Objectives
After completing this course, the participants will learn:
- Basics concepts of SATA and SAS
- Similarities and differences between SATA and SAS
- SAS Protocol Layers
- SATA and SAS Interfaces
- SATA and SAS Infrastructure
- Detailed operation of SATA and SAS
- SATA and SAS Command Protocols and Command Categories
- SATA and SAS Product Design and Testing (Verification and Validation)
Course Content
Overview of SATA and SAS
- Technical Overview of SATA and SAS
- Similarities and differences between SATA and SAS
- SATA and SAS Protocol Layers
- SATA and SAS Interfaces
- SATA and SAS Protocols and Infrastructure
- SATA and SAS In Enterprise Environment
SAS vs. SATA
- Advantages and Disadvantages
- Speed and Data transfers
- Data cable
- Uses for Personal computing, storage and Enterprise,
- Speed over Capacity
- Reliability
- SAS-SATA Connection and Translation
- SATA SSD
- PCIe SSD
- SAS SSD
- SAS/SATA HDD
- SCSI / ATA Translation (SAT)
- SATA Drives
- SAS Controllers
- SAS SSD (Serial-Attached SCSI solid-state drive)
- SCSI Read Commands
- SCSI Write Commands
Introduction to Serial Attached SCSI Interface (SAS)
- Small Computer System Interface (SCSI)
- T10 and ISO/IEC 14776-261
- ISO Part 261: SAS Protocol Layer (SPL)
- SAS-1: 0 Gbit/s
- SAS-2: 0 Gbit/s
- SAS-3: 0 Gbit/s
- SAS-4: 5 Gbit/s called “24G”
- SAS-5: 45 Gbit/s
- Topology
- SAS expanders
- SAS connectors
- The SAS interfaces
SAS Protocols and Architecture
- Serial SCSI Protocol (SSP) – for command-level communication with SCSI devices
- Serial ATA Tunneling Protocol (STP) – for command-level communication with SATA
- Serial Management Protocol (SMP) – for managing the SAS
- The architecture of SAS layers
- Physical layer: electrical and physical characteristics
- Multiple connector types
- SAS PHY Layer
- 8b/10b data encoding (3, 6, and 12 Gbit/s)
- 128b/150b SPL packet encoding (22.5 Gbit/s)
- Link initialization, speed negotiation and reset sequences
- SAS Link layer
- Insertion and deletion of primitives for clock-speed disparity matching
- Primitives
- Primitive encoding
- Data scrambling for reduced EMI
- Establish and tear down native connections between SAS targets and initiators
- Establish and tear down tunneled connections between SAS initiators and SATA targets connected to SAS expanders
- Power management (proposed for SAS-1)
- SAS Port layer
- Combining multiple PHYs with the same addresses into wide ports
- SAS Transport layer
- Serial SCSI Protocol (SSP): for command-level communication with SCSI devices
- Serial ATA Tunneled Protocol (STP): for command-level communication with SATA devices
- Serial Management Protocol (SMP): for managing the SAS fabric
- Application layer
- SCSI application layer
Overview of SATA
- Serial ATA Revision 5, 2.6, 3.0, 3.1, 3.2, 3.3, 3.4 and 3.5a Specifications
- Serial ATA Revision 5a Specification (released March 2021)
- Serial ATA Revision 4 Specification (released June 2018)
- Serial ATA Revision 3 Specification (released February 2016)
Serial ATA Revision 3.5a Specification (released March 2021)
- Device Transmit Emphasis for Gen 3 PHY
- Defined Ordered NCQ Commands
- Command Duration Limit Features
- SATA storage device specification for HDDs and SSDs
- Design guides
- Connectivity
- Architecture
- Usage models
- Cables and connectors
SATA Protocol Layers
- SATA PHY layer
- PHY layer introduction
- Descriptions of PHY electrical specifications
- Compliance testing
- Link performance
- system electrical requirements
- Electrical specifications
- Interface states
- Out-of-Band (OOB) signaling
- Idle bus condition
- OOB and phy power states
- Link layer
- Transport layer
- Device command layer protocol
- Host command layer protocol
- Application layer
- Host adapter register interface
- Error handling
- Port Multiplier
- Port Selector