company blog about Supply Microchip SXP SAS Expanders:SXP SAS-4 Expanders,SXP SAS-3 Expanders

Supply Microchip SXP SAS Expanders:SXP SAS-4 Expanders,SXP SAS-3 Expanders

Shenzhen Mingjiada Electronics Co., Ltd. is a well-known distributor of electronic components, with extensive procurement channels and rich supply experience. Not only can we provide customers with stable and reliable original products, but we also have ample supply, competitive prices, and fast delivery. We are committed to providing high-quality electronic component supply services to a wide range of end customers and distributors.

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Microchip SXP SAS Expander Product Overview

SXP SAS expander series includes a full range of expander products from SAS-3 (12 Gb/s) to SAS-4 (24 Gb/s), meeting the bandwidth, port density, and energy efficiency requirements of different application scenarios.

The SXP SAS-4 expander is Microchip's latest-generation storage expansion solution, supporting a data transfer rate of 24 Gb/s. Compared to the previous-generation SAS-3 products, it achieves double the bandwidth while maintaining excellent energy efficiency and a compact package size. This series of products is manufactured using advanced 28nm process technology and integrates DataBolt2 bandwidth optimisation technology, enabling intelligent adjustment of data transfer rates to ensure compatibility with various speeds of SAS and SATA devices.

Core Technical Advantages of the SXP SAS Expander

1. High-Performance Any-to-Any Connection Architecture

The SXP SAS expander supports true any-port-to-any-port connectivity, eliminating bottlenecks in traditional storage architectures. Taking the SXP SAS-4 as an example, its 24 PHY edge expansion capabilities significantly enhance storage cabinet capacity and flexibility, making it particularly suitable for data centre environments requiring large-scale storage expansion.

2. DataBolt2 Bandwidth Optimisation Technology

This Microchip-patented technology enables the SXP SAS-4 expander to operate intelligently in mixed-speed environments. When connected to low-speed (6 Gb/s or 12 Gb/s) devices, it maximises the utilisation of high-speed (24 Gb/s) link bandwidth through data buffering mechanisms, resulting in a significant improvement in overall system performance.

3. Enhanced cascaded topology performance

The SXP series expanders use the SPL-4 fair algorithm to ensure consistent performance across multi-level cascaded configurations, preventing issues where certain devices monopolise bandwidth and cause performance degradation in others.

4. Hardware Secure Boot Functionality

All SXP SAS-4 expanders integrate a hardware trust root mechanism, maintaining a designated trust chain throughout the product lifecycle to prevent unauthorised firmware modifications, meeting the stringent security requirements of enterprise-level storage systems.

5. Low-Power Design

Thanks to 28nm advanced process technology and innovative power management techniques, the SXP SAS-4 expander delivers twice the bandwidth of previous-generation products while maintaining the same power consumption level, significantly reducing the TCO for data centres.

Typical application scenarios for the SXP SAS expander

1. Enterprise-level storage systems

In SAN and DAS environments, the SXP SAS expander is used to connect a large number of HDDs and SSDs to build high-density, high-performance storage solutions. In particular, the SXP SAS-4 expander can fully leverage the potential of emerging technologies such as NVMe over Fabric.

2. Cloud computing infrastructure

Large cloud service providers leverage the cascading capabilities of SXP SAS expanders to build hyperscale storage resource pools, supporting high-performance storage services in multi-tenant environments. The 24Gb/s bandwidth of the SXP SAS-4 is particularly suited for handling intensive workloads such as big data analysis and AI training.

3. Video surveillance storage

The security industry has a strong demand for high-capacity, high-reliability storage. The SXP SAS expander can connect dozens or even hundreds of surveillance-specific hard drives to build petabyte-scale video storage systems while ensuring 24/7 uninterrupted operation.

4. Industrial Automation and Edge Computing

In Industry 4.0 and smart manufacturing scenarios, the SXP SAS-3 expander is often used to connect industrial-grade storage devices due to its stability and interference resistance, supporting real-time data storage requirements for applications such as machine vision and process control.

5. High-Performance Computing

Research institutions and supercomputing centres utilise SXP SAS expanders to build parallel file system backend storage, meeting the stringent requirements for ultra-high bandwidth and low latency in applications such as scientific computing and weather simulation.