Spectra Logic has an optical SAS switch supporting 100 meter distances between servers and tape drives, providing connectivity cheaper than Fiber Channel.
Its OSW-2400 Optical SAS Switch supports the SAS-4 standard for connectivity between servers and tape storage systems, and features 48 x 24G lanes operating at 22.5 Gbps. That means 1.08 TBps total bandwidth and an aggregate 108 GBps data transfer rate. The 100m distance enables a SAS fabric to cover datacenter floor spaces of up to 10,000 m² (107,639 sq ft), connect between building floors, or extend to nearby buildings.

Spectra Logic CEO and chairman Nathan Thompson stated: “The Spectra OSW-2400 Optical SAS Switch represents a unique and transformative step forward in datacenter tape connectivity. By reducing or eliminating the need for expensive Fiber Channel infrastructure, organizations can simplify their tape operations and achieve greater flexibility, while maintaining the performance and reliability they expect.”
Fiber Channel supports much larger-scale storage networking than SAS, with distances exceeding a kilometer and speeds of up to 64 Gbps, with 128 Gbps on its roadmap. But it costs more.
The company says OSW-2400 per-port connection costs are up to 70 percent less than comparable Fiber Channel infrastructure, resulting in savings on connectivity acquisition, maintenance, and upgrade costs.
Simon Robinson, Principal Analyst at Enterprise Strategy Group, part of Informa TechTarget, said: “When managing data at scale, the cost of access can be a significant component of overall storage costs. Extending SAS beyond the rack is a practical way to reduce these costs.”
The switch has 1RU short-depth packaging with front or back mounting options, hot-swappable dual power supplies, redundant cooling fans, and “a low 50-watt maximum energy consumption.”
It supports SAS-3 tape drives including LTO-9 and IBM TS1170 Enterprise products, while maintaining backward compatibility with SAS-2 devices, including LTO-6, LTO-7, LTO-8, and IBM TS1160 Enterprise Tape Drives. End device frame buffering (EDFB) optimizes bandwidth when using slower devices, improving data transfer rates by as much as 50 percent.
The switch also supports T10 and port-to-port zoning, enabling one-to-many, many-to-one, and many-to-many sharing of Spectra Logic tape libraries. Switch cascades can expand the number of fabric connections or extend connection distances beyond the limits of a single switch.
The OSW-2400 features 12 x 4 wide Mini-SAS HD ports. Each port is capable of connecting four devices such as servers or tape drives. Switch configurations start at 12 SAS-4 lanes (3 ports) and scale in increments of 12 lanes (3 ports) up to a maximum of 48 lanes (12 ports). Both active optical and passive cables are supported. Field-installed port upgrades are available in increments of 12 lanes (3 ports). A maximum of 40 tape drives per switch can be configured.
For high-availability configurations, a second switch may be deployed in a dual-ported configuration. A 10/100/1,000 Mbps Ethernet port and application software are also included for out-of-band management access.
The Spectra OSW-2400 optical SAS switch is available for Q1 delivery. For complete specifications, more information, or to schedule a consultation, click here.
Bootnote
The SAS protocol is developed and maintained by the T10 technical committee of the International Committee for Information Technology Standards (INCITS), while the technology is promoted by the SCSI Trade Association (STA).