Serial Attached SCSI Standard Approved

   Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) is now an official standard. ANSI has officially approved the standard for the next-generation SCSI protocol. The 3.0Gbps SAS 1.0 standard was finalized about 6 months ago but wasn't officially approved until last week. OEMs have been preparing SAS products for the past few months, and products should become available soon.
   Developed by Technical Committee T10 under the direction of the InterNational Committee for Information Technology Standards (INCITS), SAS is an evolution of the SCSI standard. "SAS preserves the industry's software investment in SCSI command sets. Its configuration is accomplished in software using globally-unique device identifiers. The new standard will make SAS products easier to design, install, and maintain due to compatibility with earlier SCSI generations," said John Lohmeyer, principal engineer at LSI Logic and chair of Technical Committee T10. SAS is compatible with the Serial ATA (SATA) standard as well as with earlier SCSI generations. The SCSI Trade Association (STA) plans to take an active role in ensuring SAS interoperability by holding events throughout the year at which OEMs can test their products together.