Cable assemblies for SAS storage systems

摘要

Today's storage systems, while growing in terabytes and running at higher data rates, also need to use less energy and take up less overall floor space. These systems also need more connectivity for greater flexibility. Designers require smaller interconnects that operate at the data rates of today and tomorrow. Moving from parallel SCSI technology to serial attach SCSI (SAS) technology has changed cabling schemes dramatically. The older parallel SCSI ran either single-ended or differential at rates up to 320 Mbits/s over 16 lanes. The latest SAS differential cable assemblies need to handle up to 6 Gbits/s on a single differential pair. The newest MiniSAS connector documented in the SAS-2 specification is even smaller for greater density. The latest mini-SAS connectors are half the size of the original SCSI connectors and 70% of the size of SAS connectors. Both SAS and Mini SAS have four lanes, compared to the original SCSI parallel cables.