Storage Work Group Storage Interface Interactions Specification FAQs

Trusted Computing Group – Storage Work Group
Storage Interface Interactions Specification FAQ
September 2011

Q. What is the Storage Work Group?
A. The Storage Work Group is an organization within the Trusted Computing Group. It consists of TCG member companies with interests in the implementation of the Trusted Computing Group’s methodologies for storage. For more information on the Storage Work Group, please see the documents at https://trustedcomputinggroup.org/groups/storage/

What is the TCG Storage Interface Interactions Specification (SIIS)?
SIIS specifies how the TCG Storage Core Specification and the Storage Security Class (SSC) specifications interact with industry standards for storage device interfaces and transports. It maps trusted storage device errors to interface-specific errors, maps interface-specific resets to device resets, describes interface-specific commands used to deliver commands to the device and retrieve data from the device.

Who would use the TCG SIIS document?
The TCG SIIS document should be used by anyone implementing a TCG Storage Core Specification and a TCG SSC (e.g. Optical, Opal or Enterprise SSC) on the ATA or SCSI host interfaces. The interfaces supported include, but are not limited to, ATA, SAS, Fibre Channel (FC) and ATAPI.

What is the relationship of the TCG SIIS document to other TCG specifications?
The SIIS document is currently referenced by the TCG Storage Core Specification and by the Opal and Enterprise SSCs.

Where can you obtain copies of the TCG Storage SIIS document and related TCG specifications?
The SIIS document is available on the home page of the TCG Storage Work group.
https://trustedcomputinggroup.org/specs/Storage

Have you taken into account existing standards such as those for SCSI and ATA? How are you working with other standards bodies?
The SIIS document was developed with advice from industry experts that are TCG members and participants in the INCITS T10 (SCSI) and T13 (ATA/ATAPI) standards committees.

Is the TCG SIIS complete? Will there be later versions?
It is complete for the supported host interfaces and transports and above SSCs. It may be updated in the future to support other host interfaces or transports.

Will products based on the TCG SIIS work in today’s PC architectures?
Yes. Operation in legacy environments was a primary concern in the development of the document.

Does the TCG SIIS address flash drives and other portable storage devices?
The SIIS addresses any type of storage device on the supported interfaces, transports, and above mentioned SSCs.

Does the SIIS describe the interaction between TCG security and interface-specific security protocols?
Yes. The interaction between the ATA security feature set and TCG security is described in the SIIS.

What is new in Version 1.01?
Version 1.01 adds support for USB and UAS interfaces, changes the base ATA reference from ATA8-ACS to ACS-2, clarifies the Locking Template interactions with the ATA Security and Sanitize Device feature sets, and adds support for the ATA Sense Data Reporting feature set.