PMC-Sierra introduced the industry’s first SAS 2.0 compliant device for enabling enterprise-class SAS/SATA disk-array systems. SAS 2.0 enhances the SAS protocol to achieve greater levels of performance, scalability, availability and reliability. It also significantly improves the connector and cabling within the data center.
PMC-Sierra’s new 6 Gbps SAS/SATA controller (PM8000 Tachyon SPC 8x6G) leverages the company’s Tachyon protocol controller technology, preserving storage OEMs’ software and hardware investments. The Tachyon SPC 8x6G, together with PMC-Sierra’s maxSAS expander switches and active-active multiplexers, provides an end-to-end enterprise-class chip set solution.
Key features of the Tachyon SPC includes:
- Compatibility with industry-proven and established Tachyon programming model;
- Support for 1,024 end devices for high density storage arrays;
- 1.5Gbps SATA and 3Gbps SAS/SATA backwards compatibility;
- Eight-lane PCI-Express 2.0 bus;
- Greater than 250,000 input/output per second (IOPS) performance;
- SAS 2.0 compliant multiplexing to boost performance when used in 3G infrastructures;
- Full-featured fault isolation framework application in Host software; and
- Support for the T-10 Standard DIF (Data Integrity Field) to ensure complete integrity in the I/O data path.
- In 2005, PMC-Sierra acquired Agilent’s Semiconductor Products Group, a long-time technology leader in Fibre Channel protocol controllers with its Tachyon product lines.