A typical SATAnet system is a cluster of computers connected together via SATA cables from their motherboard’s SATA ports to a proprietary router unit. In the context of HPC clusters the computers are known as ‘nodes’ and the whole collection is typically housed within a single rackmount cabinet.

Storage facilities within the cluster can be connected centrally to the SATAnet router itself (external to the nodes), distributed within the nodes, or held in a separate cabinet.

For storage and communication functionality, no software is required beyond that already provided by any system which supports Serial ATA discs. To use SATAnet as a network requires only the ability to read/write sectors of a disc, and in most systems this is possible at the application level.

Additional software is required to support Virtual Symbiotics, TCP/IP, and MPI. These consist of the following:

• Virtual Symbiotics: Linux userspace daemon, userspace C++ library.
• TCP/IP: Linux kernel module
• MPI: Contents depend upon the choice of implementation; most non-native versions should work with TCP/IP.