wikiSATA, SAS & NVMe plug types
Cables with special plug connections are required for the connection of data carriers. The interface of the data carriers, but also the nature of the housing and the backplane, determine the plug to be used. This article provides an overview of the Standard Form Factors (SFF) for data carriers with SATA, SAS or NVMe interface and its possible application.
Descriptions
- The SATA-standard is determined by the Serial SATA International Organization (SATA-IO)[1].
- For STATA-plugs, there are no defined plug types descriptions.
- The SAS-standard is developed by the SNIA SFF Technology Affiliate (TA) Technical Work Group (TWG)[2].
- The IDs of the plug types come from the abbreviation SFF (Standard Form Factor) and of a sequential numbering of SFF TA TWG projects.
- The NVM express (NVMe)-interface (developed by NVM express), Inc.[3]) enables the host software to communicate with a non-volatile memory subsystem.
This interface is optimized for all storage solutions that are connected to a variety of transport routes - including PCI Express, Ethernet, InfiniBandTM and Fibre Channel.[4] Cables and plugs for PCI expresses are developed by the Peripheral Component Interconnect Special Interest Group (PCI-SIG)[5].
- The plug types for the use of PCIe NVMe data carriers meet the OCuLink-2[6] standard.
Overview
The following list provides an overview of the most common connectors for SATA, SAS, and NVMe data storage devices.
| standard | description | interface | use | endpoints | illustration |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SFF-8644 | MiniSAS HD | SAS-3 (Multilane) | external | 
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| SFF-8643 | MiniSAS HD | SAS-3 (Multilane) | internal |
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| SFF-8087 | MiniSAS | SAS-2 (Multilane) | internal |
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| SFF-8088 | MiniSAS | SAS-2 (Multilane) | external |
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| SFF-8673 | MiniSAS HD | PCI Express | internal |
|
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| SFF-8674 | MiniSAS HD | PCI-Express | external |
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| SFF-8611 | OCuLink-2 | PCI-Express 4.0 | internal |
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| SATA | Serial ATA Revision 3.0 | SATA-3 | internal |
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References
- ↑ Serial ATA International Organization (SATA-IO)(sata-io.org)
- ↑ SFF specifications of SNIA (snia.org)
- ↑ NVM Express, Inc. (nvmexpress.org)
- ↑ NVM Express Base Specification - Revision 2.0c October 4th, 2022 (nvmexpress.org) The NVM Express® (NVMe®) interface allows host software to communicate with a non-volatile memory subsystem. This interface is optimized for all storage solutions, attached using a variety of transports including PCI Express®, Ethernet, InfiniBandTM, and Fibre Channel.
- ↑ Peripheral Component Interconnect Special Interest Group (PCI-SIG)(pcisig.com)
- ↑ OcuLink-2(Beschreibung von OcuLink und OcuLink-2 auf connectortips.com)
More information
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Author: Stefan Bohn Stefan Bohn has been employed at Thomas-Krenn.AG since 2020. Originally based in PreSales as a consultant for IT solutions, he moved to Product Management in 2022. There he dedicates himself to knowledge transfer and also drives the Thomas-Krenn Wiki.
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Translator: Alina Ranzinger Alina has been working at Thomas-Krenn.AG since 2024. After her training as multilingual business assistant, she got her job as assistant of the Product Management and is responsible for the translation of texts and for the organisation of the department.
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