1-Day Storage Interface Overview & Comparison  
  This one day seminar provides an overview of the principal storage interfaces: Fibre Channel, Serial Attached SCSI (SAS), Serial ATA (SATA) Internet SCSI (iSCSI) and PCI Express (PCIe). It provides a high-level look at each interface and a comparison of the technical aspects and market applications of each interface.

Course Outline

Introduction and Overview (.5 hr)
Introduction to Emerging Technologies
Common Technology Trends (1 hr)
Serial vs. Parallel Interfaces
How Do You Go Faster?
 Faster Clock Rates
 Single-Lane vs. Multi-Lane
Scrambling and Encoding
Primitives, Frames, and Packets
Frame Switching vs. Circuit Switching
Fibre Channel (1 hr)
Fibre Channel Market & Applications
Fibre Channel Architecture & Configurations
Fibre Channel Protocols
 SCSI Fibre Channel Protocol (FCP)
 Fibre Connection Protocol (FICON)
Fibre Channel Transport Layer
Fibre Channel Physical Layer
 Link Rates and Distances
 Optical and Electrical Links
Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) (1 hr)
FCoE Market & Applications
FCoE Architecture & Configurations
FCoE Protocols
FCoE Transport Layer
FCoE Physical Layer
 Link Rates and Distances
 Optical and Electrical Links
Serial ATA (SATA) (1 hr)
SATA Market & Applications
SATA Architecture & Configurations
SATA Transport and Link Layers
 Transport Layer Protocol
 Link Layer Protocol
 Frame Transmission and Reception
SATA Physical Layer
 Out of band signaling & Speed Negotiation
 Resets and Signatures
 Interface power states
 SATA & eSATA Cabling and Connectors
 SATA Port Multipliers and Port Selectors

Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) (1 hr)
SAS Market & Applications
SAS Architecture & Configurations
 Initiators, Targets and Expanders
 Ports and PHYs
 Addressing and Configurations
 Connections
SAS Protocols
 Serial SCSI Protocol (SSP)
 Serial Management Protocol (SMP)
 Serial ATA Tunneled Protocol (STP)
SAS Transport Layer
SAS Physical Layer
 Out of Band Signaling and Resets
 Device Identification
 Link Rates and Distances
 Multiplexing and Rate Matching
 Cables and Connectors
Internet SCSI (iSCSI)? (1 hr)
iSCSI Market & Applications
iSCSI Architecture & Configurations
iSCSI Transport Layer
 Protocol Data Units (PDUs)
 Flow Control
iSCSI Link Layer
 Gigabit and 10-Gigabit Ethernet
iSCSI Performance Considerations
 TCP Offload Engines (TOEs)
 iSCSI HBAs
PCI Express (PCIe) (1 hr)
PCIe Market & Applications
PCIe Architecture & Configurations
PCIe Protocols
PCIe Physical Layer
 Link Rates and Distances
 1x, 4x, 8x and 16x Lanes
Wrap up and Discussion (.5 hr)
Who Should Attend: This seminar is targeted towards developers, integrators, managers and others with a need for a high-level overview and comparison of current and emerging interfaces.
 
Prerequisites: An understanding of current computer interfaces or networks is desirable, although not absolutely necessary.
Course Length:

1 day