Chapter 1. Introducing SSA and the Advanced SerialRAIDAdapters
This chapter describes:
vSerial storage architecture (SSA).
vTheAdvanced SerialRAID Adapter and the Advanced SerialRAID Plus Adapter.
Physically,the two types of adapter are the same. The Advanced SerialRAID Plus
Adapter,however, provides additional functions.
In this book, the name “Advanced SerialRAID Adapter”is used both for the Advanced
SerialRAIDAdapter and for the Advanced SerialRAID Plus Adapter, unless otherwise
stated.

Serial Storage Architecture (SSA)

Serial StorageArchitecture (SSA) is an industry-standard interface that provides
high-performance fault-tolerant attachment of I/O storage devices. In SSAsubsystems,
transmissions to several destinations are multiplexed; the effective bandwidth is further
increased by spatial reuse of the individual links. Commands are forwarded
automatically from device to device along a loop until the target device is reached.
Multiple commands can be travelling around the loop simultaneously.SSA retains the
SCSI-2 commands, queuing model, and status and sense bytes.
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