PMC-Sierra and Hitachi Global Storage Technologies (Hitachi GST) this week announced that the companies successfully achieved interoperability between PMC-Sierra's end-to-end Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) 6Gb/s chipsets and Hitachi's SAS 6Gb/s prototype hard disk drives (HDDs).

"PMC-Sierra is committed to ensuring full interoperability with 6Gb/s components to reduce the time to market and transition seamlessly to 6Gb/s SAS/SATA systems. PMC-Sierra has been very impressed by the quality and maturity of Hitachi's 6Gb/s SAS technology, which translated directly into successful interoperability between PMC-Sierra's end-to-end 6Gb/s SAS chipset and Hitachi 6Gb/s SAS HDDs," said Travis Karr, vice president of marketing for PMC-Sierra's enterprise storage division.

PMC-Sierra's 6Gb/s SAS chipsets include the Tachyon SPC 8x6G SAS protocol controller, the SRC 8x6G RAID-on-Chip controller and maxSAS SXP 36/24x6GSec expander switches. Details about Hitachi's SAS-2 hard disk drive were not disclosed.

The increased performance offered by 6Gb/s SAS HDDs enables SAS-2 systems to deliver higher levels of scalability, availability and reliability. Demonstrating successful 6Gb/s SAS interoperability between PMC-Sierra chipsets and Hitachi hard drives allows server and storage system equipment manufacturers to design a SAS-2 architecture operating end-to-end at 6Gb/s line rate with confidence.

"The increased transfer rate of the new 6Gb/s SAS interface is critical to satisfying our enterprise customers' continuing appetite for performance enhancements. Hitachi is pleased to have collaborated with PMC-Sierra and demonstrated interoperability with our respective 6Gb/s SAS products. These collaborations will help pave the way for a seamless industry transition to the new interface standard," said Currie Munce, vice president, enterprise HDD business group, Hitachi Global Storage Technologies.

SAS 6Gb/s hard drives and other infrastructure components will be fully backward compatible with existing SAS 3Gb/s devices.

Hitachi and PMC-Sierra will participate in the SCSI Trade Association's SAS Solutions Open House being held at the Fairmont Hotel in San Jose, California on May 6. The event is designed to provide a broad SAS learning experience and will include a 6Gb/s SAS technology demonstration.