SCSI Trade Association Completes Seventh SAS Plugfest

July 23-27 SAS Plugfest Featured SAS and SATA HDDs, Enclosures and Cabling Product Testing

San Francisco, August 20, 2007 – The SCSI Trade Association (STA), a member-run industry association established to support and promote SCSI technology, announced today that the seventh Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) plugfest was held July 23-27, 2007, at the University of New Hampshire InterOperability Laboratory (UNH-IOL). The plugfest was attended by both STA member and non-member companies. See page two for a list of the attending STA members.

Tests made available to attendees Included:

• Single zoning
• Multiple zones
• Interoperability of Serial ATA (SATA) drives in a SAS environment

“Many new companies, new products and product refinements have entered the market since our last plugfest,” said Harry Mason President of SCSI Trade Association and Director of Industry Marketing for LSI, “so it’s essential that we periodically host these important industry events to continually improve SAS functionality, user experience, and overall market acceptance.”

Mike Fitzpatrick, Senior Research Executive, Fujitsu Computer Products of America and Chairperson of the SAS Plugfest Technical Committee, stated, “Since the first SAS plugfest in March, 2004, SAS technology has made great strides in functionality, SATA interoperability and acceptance by the storage market. The recent plugfest continued SAS product fine-tuning with results that indicate the successful completion of the first generation of SAS. Particularly significant were the results of zone testing, as zoning is becoming an important part of data management within a SAS datacenter.”

Backward compatibility is key to the SAS user’s ability to easily mix and match SAS and SATA technologies and to flexibly maximize storage cost. In the interest of backward compatibility, 3Gb/s SAS will be tested over several future plugfests, including those where 6Gb/s SAS will also be tested. It is essential that 3Gb/s SAS be compatible with 6Gb/s SAS as well as the earlier 1.5Gb/s SATA. The next SAS plugfest is anticipated for early 2008 when 6Gb/s SAS products start to become more widely available.

STA Member Companies Attending the Plugfest
Adaptec
AIC/Xtore
Emulex
Finisar
Fujitsu CPA
Intel
LeCroy
LSI
Marvell Semiconductor
PMC-Sierra
3ware

About STA
The SCSI Trade Association was established in 1995 to provide a focal point for members to communicate the benefits of SCSI to the industry. Today, STA promotes the understanding and use of Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) technology and influences the evolution of SAS standards to meet future industry needs. STA has a nine-member Board of Directors that oversees the Marketing Communications and Technology Committees and all STA activities. To subscribe to Serial Storage Wire, STA’s free SAS newsletter, please visit: www.serialstoragewire.org. For more information, please visit the STA web site at www.scsita.org, send an email to info@scsita.org or call the STA office at 415-561-6273.

For further information, contact: