Why is the new Serial SCSI standard necessary? (StorageSearch.com's viewpoint 2001)
Without faster storage - typically upto 50% of the potential performance in modern server processors is wasted.
Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) provides a software compatible upgrade for directly attached SCSI storage which provides much higher performance than Ultra320 SCSI. So this is the least pain next step for SCSI users. Although, as with all new technology there is a learning curve.
The popularity of Internet SCSI (iSCSI) protocol products in the second half of 2003 proved that the base of server owners who are familiar with SCSI - will go a long way to adopt new connectivity options which leverage concepts they trust and are familiar with. Asimilar evolution took place with Ethernet, which started as a 3Mbps standard and still looks viable at 10Gbps. Computer users like stuff that is newer faster and cheaper, but we all know that "newer" also means "buggier" if we are the first users. Anything that reduces the amount of new code and risk along the way gets our vote.
SAS will meet the threat (albeit late in marketing terms) from Serial ATA (SATA), FireWire and USB 2. In fact SAS uses the same electrical interface and cables as SATA. That's good news if you're worried about stocking even more types of cables. It also simplifies the rollout of new test equipment - because products designed for SATA can be adapted to SAS more simply (in theory by firmware upgrades.)
20+ years ago, when SCSI started, it suited the clock speeds and cable transmission driving capabilities of the TTL compatible logic which was the standard at the time. SCSI was also easy to connect using standard low technology ribbon cable. Since then, most of the enhancements in the SCSI standard have focused on getting it to work faster, using higher clock speeds, a wider data bus, lower logic levels and differential signals.
Serial Attached SCSI is the first real attempt in SCSI history to lower cost and simplify the physical connection. Past performance upgrades came from increasing the number of cable cores. But the new high speed serial SCSI cables should be cheaper than the lower performance parallel SCSI ones which they replace. And you won't have to worry any more about those termination nightmares. It's simpler in a serial system to automatically monitor signal quality and dyamically adjust to the cable and connector transmission characteristics.