Serial Attached SCSI (SAS & SAS 2) Information Resource Center

Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) is a data-transfer technology for moving data to and from storage devices. SAS depends on a point-to-point serial protocol that replaces parallel SCSI bus technology that is commonly used in data centers, workstations and servers. The technology is based on a serial transmission scheme and uses an embedded clock with the 8b/10b data encoding scheme.

The SAS technology is currently at its second generation. It is referred to as SAS-2 and covers speeds of up to 6Gb/s, allowing for faster data transfer than the previous generation. Its predecessor, SAS-1 only covers speeds of up to 3Gb/s. One of the uniqueness of SAS is it offers backwards-compatibility with Serial ATA (SATA) storage devices. SATA devices may be connected to SAS backplanes, but SAS drives may not be connected to SATA backplanes.

The T10 technical committee of the International Committee for Information Technology Standards (INCITS) develops and maintains the SAS protocol and physical layers, while the SCSI Trade Association (SCSITA) promotes the technology. Agilent is an active member and contributor of the T10 and SCSITA, with consistent participation in workshops and specifications development. These resources you find here will provide you with an overview of SAS design, understand the latest measurement techniques, and illustrate design and debug approaches. Agilent - achieve your best design.