This white paper describes the SATA and SAS protocols, how the protocols are used, explains the value SATA and SAS in terms of usage in an FPGA, and illustrates how Altera FPGAs can be used to develop a SATA or SAS solution. SATA and SAS are computer bus standards that have the primary function of transferring data (directly or otherwise) between the motherboard and mass storage devices (such as hard disk drives, optical drives, and solid-state disks) inside and outside the computer.

Author: Bryce Mackin, Product Marketing Manager, I/O Solutions, High-End Product Marketing

Mr. Mackin’s focus is on FPGA coprocessors for the high performance computing market, and has investigated and developed methods for accelerating HPC applications using FPGAs. He has been in product and technical marketing for the computer and storage market for over 10 years.