Serial Storage Architecture
(SSA) IBM's proposed ANSI standard for a standard high-speed interface to disk
clusters and arrays. SSA allows full-duplex packet multiplexed serial data
transfers at rates of 20Mb/sec in each direction.
According to John Taylor, programme manager at IBM's Storage Division at Havant,
SSA will be used in arrays of discs working with high-end computers ranging from
mainframes down to LAN servers. Taylor said that SSA differs from the IEEE
proposed P1394 serial interface specification in its ability to offer
simultaneous multiplexed transfers from more than one disk or array. IBM also
supports the P1394 standard which will be used primarily by desktop PCs for
multimedia applications.
SSA has received backing from a number of companies including connector makers
Molex, ITT Cannon and AMP, disk drive makers Conner and Western Digital and RAID
array suppliers like Dynatech and NCR. IBM expects to see the first SSA products
released at Comdex in Autumn 1994 but it will be 1995 before the products ship
in volume.
Under an agreement signed with ASIC maker and ARM licencee VLSI Technology, IBM
will use ARM-based chips made by VLSI to implement the SSA interface and VLSI
will make these cores available to third parties as one of its Functional System
Blocks.
Nearby terms:
serial port « Serial Presence Detect « serial
processing «
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