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Are SAS 3Gb/s controllers (SAS1) forward compatible with newer SAS2 drives specified at 6Gb/s? The controller I have in mind is an LSI SAS1064. I know that SAS2 controllers are backwards compatible with SAS devices. I found some information in this thread:


but not a lot at


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Yup, here is the info I found: http://www.dell.com/downloads/global/products/pvaul/en/6gb-sas-transition.pdf

6Gb/s SAS is designed for backward compatibility with 3Gb/s SAS and 3Gb/s SATA

Here is anandtech testing a 6gb/s drive in both 6gb and 3gb controllers:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/2866/3 (sata, but should be the same)

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Unfortunately, the Dell links refers to 6G controllers and 3G disks. The anandtech article is about SATA. You mention that sata and sas "should be the same". Is that in the SAS spec? I do recall reading about some compatibility between SAS and SATA. –  Ryan Aug 16 '11 at 17:04
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