[Discuss] SAS drives

[dsr at tao.merseine.nu (Dan Ritter)]

On Thu, Aug 04, 2011 at 04:29:59PM -0400, Daniel Feenberg wrote:
> 
> I don't know why you say this. Once you have purchased the special
> SAS cable, one end plugs into the special SAS socket. But the other
> end plugs into either a SAS or SATA socket on a controller (because
> SAS controllers have to support both), even though the drive will
> only work with a SAS controller. So the special socket has merely
> moved the mismatch problem one cable closer to the controller.
> 
> Oh, I see it about backplanes that don't use a cable. So they solve
> the problem for a small segment of the market - the segment that has
> the skills to do the right thing anyway.

The PC2012 specification says that all drives must be mounted in
no-sled ejectable backplane slots, so this is an important bit
to get right so that SAS drives are not accidentally purchased
and placed in SATA slots.

This makes changing disks much easier for the home user, of
course. They just need to turn off the computer, press the right
eject button, pull out the old disk, take it to the store, have
the contents copied into a new, larger/faster disk, and then
they go home, push it in and turn it on.

The above two paragraphs are purest drivel, as the personal
computer industry couldn't agree on doing something so smooth in
a hundred years. I hope it was at least amusing to contemplate.


-dsr-

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