These all-SAS storage networks promise to be more efficient -- no adapters to do protocol conversions -- and less expensive than hybrid systems that combine FC connectivity with SAS and SATA drives. Just imagine: You could build storage networks where data flows from hosts to disk drives without ever leaving the ubiquitous SAS protocol.

Will other vendors follow LSI Logic down the SAS switching path? It's quite possible, because the technology has a well-defined road map (http://www.scsita.org/aboutscsi/sas/SAS_roadmap2004.html) and is mounting considerable momentum.

Speaking of momentum, Intel processors may have recently been admitted into the once-denied domain (http://www.infoworld.com/article/05/06/06/HNappleshiftingtointel_1.html) of Apple, but it s rivalry with AMD (http://www.infoworld.com/reports/SRamdvsintel.html) is finding new battlefields in storage devices.

Here's why: You may have never heard of Agami, but this startup began shipping NAS appliances based on AMD CPUs last year. Moreover, Agami has deep roots in storage.

"We bought the software stack from a company called Zambeel that went out of business a few years ago, and that became the genesis of what Agami is today," says John Wernke, vice president of marketing at Agami. "We took that software stack that was built for a high-end HPC solution and figured out how to run it on commodity hardware."