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UNH InterOperability Lab

Serial Advanced Technology Attachment(SATA)

Use Cases

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SATA Use Cases

Presentation Topics

• SATA Uses in the Enterprise• SATA Uses in Personal Computing

• Device Form Factors• ODD, HDD, and SSD Devices• Port Multipliers

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SATA Use Cases

SATA Uses in the Enterprise• Scalability and Cost

• Cabling and Connections

• Performance and SATA / SAS Compatibility

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SATA Use Cases

Scalability and Cost

• SATA is highly viable for servers and storage networks

• Once SATA controller can aggregate multiple ports

• Multiple SATA drives can be linked using backplanes and external enclosures

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SATA Use Cases

Scalability and Cost• SATA was designed to provide excellent speed and storage at a low cost

• Cost and scalability provides potential for greater storage capacity at a lower cost than networked or server storage

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SATA Use Cases

Cabling and Connections• Point-to-point connectivity• Thin and relatively small (compared to PATA) cables allow for simple routing and better airflow within systems

• SATA was designed to eliminate master and slave setups as well as drive jumpers

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SATA Use Cases

Cabling and Connections• Hot-swapping is supported (drives can be added or removed while system is running)

• Connectors allow for simple external RAID through backplanes

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SATA Use Cases

SATA Cables

• Up to 1 meter in length, 7 conductors (3 grounds and 2 pairs of data lines)

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SATA Use Cases

Performance and SATA/SAS Compatibility• First Generation SATA (1.5 Gbit/s)

• Second Generation SATA (3.0 Gbit/s)

• Third Generation SATA (6.0 Gbit/s)

• Native Command Queuing (NCQ)• Interoperability with SAS Initiators and Expanders

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SATA Use Cases

First Generation SATA (1.5 Gbit/s)

• Communication rate of 1.5 Gbit/s for data transfer

• At the application level, only one transaction can be handled at a given time

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SATA Use Cases

First Generation SATA (1.5 Gbit/s)

• Throughput capabilities similar to PATA/133 specification

• All optical drives operate at 1.5 Gbit/s transfer rate as well as many hard disk drives and hosts

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SATA Use Cases

Second Generation SATA (3.0 Gbit/s)• Designed to compensate for first generation shortcomings

• Native Command Queuing (NCQ) support added for both 1.5 and 3.0 Gbit/s devices

• Backwards compatibility with 1.5 controllers and 3.0 Gbit/s devices

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SATA Use Cases

Second Generation SATA (3.0 Gbit/s)• Second Generation SATA devices can drop to 1.5 Gbit/s transfer rate when communicating with First Generation devices

• 3.0 Gbit/s transfer rate supported by many hosts and hard disk drives

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SATA Use Cases

Third Generation SATA (6.0 Gbit/s)• With introduction of Solid State Disk (SSD) drives, which operate at the 250 MB/s limit net read speed, enhancements were required

• Isochronous data transfers in the NCQ streaming command were added

• All DRAM cache reads operate at faster rates with Third Generation

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SATA Use Cases

Third Generation SATA (6.0 Gbit/s)• New NCQ host processing and management

• Power management improved• Former SATA cables and connectors still meet specification

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SATA Use Cases

Native Command Queuing (NCQ)• When drive receives multiple commands from an application, NCQ optimizes how the commands will be completed

• Drive must intelligently and internally assess the destination of the logic block addresses and then order the commands to optimize the workload

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SATA Use Cases

Native Command Queuing (NCQ)• This is due to the fact that the mechanical movement needed to position the read / write head is relevant

• This improves performance and minimizes the mechanical positioning for the drive

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SATA Use Cases

Native Command Queuing (NCQ)

• Commands are ordered in the queue to minimize mechanical movement

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SATA Use Cases

Interoperability with SAS Initiators and Expanders• SATA protocol was designed to interoperate with SAS

• SATA drives can be used in many SAS enclosures

• SATA targets are designed to connect to SAS initiators and expanders

• However, SATA initiators cannot connect to SAS targets and expanders

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SATA Use Cases

SATA Uses in Personal Computing• Better performance than and backwards compatibility with PATA (Parallel Advanced Technology Attachment)

• Enhanced reliability• Flexible system integration

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SATA Use Cases

SATA v. PATA Performance and Compatibility• Simplified operation with hot-swapping

• SATA cables have only 7 conductors (two pairs of differential signaling lines, one for transmission, one for receiving and three grounds) improving accessibility

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SATA Use CasesSATA v. PATA Performance and Compatibility• SATA devices can be set up to behave like PATA devices through “legacy mode” settings

• Devices look as if they are on a PATA controller

• Through eSATA connectivity internal SATA devices can connect to end systems externally

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SATA Use Cases

Enhanced Reliability

• Packet integrity is verified by Cyclic Redundancy Checking (CRC)

• CRC authenticates all data, validates that no corruption exists

• SATA also uses CRC to communicate what data should be read or written and to watch drive optimization

• Available latching connectors

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SATA Use Cases

Flexible System Integration• SATA is scalable, allowing for growth and augmentations to the platform

• SATA supports all ATA and ATAPI devices (CD, DVD, CDRW, tape devices, Zip, etc.)

• USB and IEEE1394 support for eSATA

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SATA Use Cases

Device Form Factors

• 2.5” Side and Bottom Mounting Device

• 3.5” Side and Bottom Mounting Device

• 5.25” Optical Device• 5.25” Non-optical Device• 9.5 mm Slim-line Drive• 12.7 mm Slim-line Drive• 1.8” SATA Drive

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SATA Use Cases

2.5” Side and Bottom Mounting Device

• Form Factor for SSD and HDD applications

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SATA Use Cases

3.5” Side and Bottom Mounting Device

• Form Factor for disk drives

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SATA Use Cases

5.25” Optical Device

• Form Factor for CD, DVD, CDRW, DVDRW, etc. drives

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SATA Use Cases

9.5 mm Slim-line Drive

• Form Factor for many laptop optical drives

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SATA Use Cases

12.7 mm Slim-line Drive

• Form Factor for many laptop optical drives

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SATA Use Cases

1.8” SATA Drive

• Form Factor for many drives designed for portable devices and notebook computers

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SATA Use Cases

Types of SATA Drives

• Optical Disk Drives (ODD)• Hard Disk Drives (HDD)• Solid State Disk Drives (SSD)

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SATA Use Cases

Optical Disk Drives (ODD)• All SATA Optical Disk Drives operate at Generation 1 speed (1.5 Gbit/s)

• Offered in 5.25”, 9.5 mm, and 12.7 mm form factors

• Capabilities include CD, DVD, CDRW, DVDR, DVDRW

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SATA Use Cases

Hard Disk Drives (HDD)• SATA Hard Disk Drives can operate at all speeds: 1.5 Gbit/s, 3.0 Gbit/s, and 6.0 Gbit/s

• Operating speeds of 4200 rpm, 5400 rpm, 7200 rpm, and 10,000 rpm

• Seen in all form factors (enclosures available for 9.5 mm and 12.7 mm are available)

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SATA Use Cases

Solid State Disk Drives (SSD)• SSD drives have many advantages over HDD drives

• Typically composed of DRAM or NAND memory

• No moving parts: faster startup, reading, constant performance, silent, lower heat production and power consumption, more resistant to physical shock and climate

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SATA Use Cases

Solid State Disk Drives (SSD)• Some disadvantages compared to HDD drives

• Considerably higher cost, lower relative capacities, limited write cycles, slower write speeds

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SATA Use Cases

Port Multipliers

• What Port Multipliers Do• How Port Multipliers Operate • How Port Multipliers are Cost-effective

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SATA Use Cases

What Port Multipliers Do• From one SATA port, multiple drives or devices can communicate

• Placed on the backplane of a SATA enclosure

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SATA Use Cases

What Port Multipliers Do• Transparent operation to the drives attached

• All SATA drives are supported

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SATA Use Cases

How Port Multipliers Operate• One SATA port multiplier host connects to many SATA drives

• Operation is similar to USB hubs but performance is in line with an aggregated switch

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SATA Use Cases

How Port Multipliers Operate• Host bus adapter communicates with all drives but each subsequent drive is unaware of the multiplexing

• Drives act as if they are connected directly to the host

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SATA Use Cases

How Port Multipliers Operate

• Note that the available bandwidth on the 3Gbit/s link limits drive connectivity, maintaining efficiency and performance

• Bus to SATA Devices

• Bus to SATA PM to Devices

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SATA Use Cases

How Port Multipliers are Cost-effective• Allow extended device scalability

• Up to 15 SATA devices can link to the host with one cable

• Efficient packaging

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SATA Use Cases

How Port Multipliers are Cost-effective• Greater performance than Firewire / USB external drives

• Only one host adapter is required as one PCI slot is needed

• No performance loss