HP K2Q82A 4TB 3.5-inch Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) LFF 12G Dual Port 512e Midline Hot-Plug 7.2K MSA Hard Drive for HPE MSA 1040/2040 SAN Storage Array (801557-001)

HP K2Q82A 4TB 3.5-inch Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) LFF 12G Dual Port 512e Midline (MDL) Hot-Plug 7.2K MSA Hard Drive in HPE MSA2 drive tray with interposer connector For HPE MSA 1040/2040 SAN Storage Array (801557-001)

HP MSA2 / MSA2000 controller enclosures and large form factor expansion enclosures accept unique HPE SAS disk drive modules with different firmware and different trays than other HPE storage arrays and Proliant servers. The disk drives have SAS interposers attached to the back which convert the native dual port SAS interface to an SCA-40 connector. While this SCA-40 connector has the same shape as a Fibre Channel (FC) connector, the drives are NOT utilizing the FC protocol. If you look closely at the interposer, the circuitry is rather simplistic and no bridge / translator chip is attached. The interposer is, more or less, acting as a signal filter and port relocator to connect to the MSA2’s proprietary backplane.