IP-attached ATA storage

[Bob Horst <Bob.Horst@3ware.com>]

There was some recent discussion about supporting ATA protocols over iSCSI.  At 3ware, we have been working on IP-attached ATA storage for quite a while.   We are already shipping a line of ATA PCI controllers with internal packet switching  hardware that exports virtual SCSI devices, and have device drivers for several operating systems.  We are just about to come out of stealth mode on the way we will extend these products to network-attached block storage subsystems with our Storage Control Protocol over TCP/IP.  We will be showing our product at Networld+Interop in Atlanta and plan to ship production units by the end of the year.

 

Although our protocol has some differences from iSCSI, we hope in the long run to work with the committee to ensure that the final iSCSI protocol is suitable for ATA storage as well as SCSI.  Our initial protocol, which will ship before there is an agreed standard, will naturally be a subset of what is eventually standardized.  We will upgrade the customers to the standard appropriately as it emerges.

We are not quite ready to disclose our protocol, but I will be attending the IETF meeting in Pittsburgh and hope to begin interacting with the committee then.

 

-- Bob

 

Bob Horst

3ware, Inc.
490 California Ave.
Palo Alto, CA 94306
http://www.3ware.com