A technician is verifying the throughput of SAS drives connected to a PERC 10 controller. What is the maximum data transfer rate achievable when using SAS 3.0 compliant drives with a PERC 10 controller?

The Dell EMC PowerEdge RAID Controller (PERC) 10 series is designed to support the Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) 3.0 standard. The SAS 3.0 specification defines a maximum data transfer rate of 12 Gigabits per second (Gb/s) per lane. When a SAS 3.0 compliant drive is connected to a PERC 10 controller, the interface negotiates to this maximum supported speed. Therefore, the highest achievable data transfer rate for this combination is 12 Gb/s.

A. 3Gb/sec: This is the data transfer rate for the much older SAS 1.0 standard. PERC 10 is backward compatible but supports higher speeds.
B. 22.5Gb/sec: This is the data rate for the newer SAS 4.0 (24G SAS) standard, which is not supported by the PERC 10 controller series.
D. 6Gb/sec: This is the data transfer rate for the SAS 2.0 standard. While PERC 10 supports this speed, it is not the maximum achievable with SAS 3.0 drives.

1. Dell EMC PowerEdge RAID Controller H740P and H840 Technical Guide: In the "Key Features" section, it explicitly states support for "12Gb/s SAS (SAS 3.0)". This confirms the controller's capability.

Source: Dell EMC PowerEdge RAID Controller H740P and H840 Technical Guide, Page 5, Section "Key Features".

2. Dell EMC PowerEdge RAID Controller 10 User's Guide: The technical specifications table for the PERC H740P, H745, H840, and other Series 10 controllers lists the "Device interface" as "12 Gbps SAS".

Source: Dell EMC PowerEdge RAID Controller 10 User's Guide, Page 10, Table 2 "Technical specifications of PERC 10 series controllers".

3. SCSI Trade Association (STA) - SAS Technology Overview: The official industry body for SCSI technology specifies the data rates for each generation. The SAS-3 generation is defined as having a 12.0 Gbit/s transfer rate.

Source: SCSI Trade Association, "Serial Attached SCSI (SAS)", Technology section. (The specific document is the SAS standard itself, ANSI INCITS 519-2014, which defines the 12 Gb/s physical layer).