Storage Interface Interactions
Specification (SIIS) FAQ

Storage Work Group
Storage Interface Interactions Specification (SIIS)
FAQ
November 2018
Q. What is the Storage Work Group?
A. The Storage Work Group is an organization within the Trusted Computing Group. It consists ofTCG 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 thedocuments at www.trustedcomputinggroup.org
Q. What is the TCG Storage Interface Interactions Specification?
A. 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 andretrieve data from the device, and interactions with some interface-specific features.
Q. Who would use the TCG SIIS document?
A. 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). The storage device interfaces
supported include, but are not limited to ATA, SCSI, UFS, NVMe, e•MMC and ATAPI.
Q. What is the relationship of the TCG SIIS document to other TCG specifications?
A. The SIIS document is currently referenced by the TCG Storage Architecture Core Specifications
and by TCG Storage SSCs.
Q. Where can you obtain copies of the TCG SIIS document and related TCG
specifications?
A. The SIIS document is available at www.trustedcomputinggroup.org

Copyright © TCG 2018

Storage Interface Interactions
Specification (SIIS) FAQ

Q. Have you taken into account existing standards such as those for SCSI and ATA?
How are you working with other standards bodies?
A. Yes. The SIIS document was developed with advice from industry experts that are TCG
members and participants in the JEDEC, NVM Express, and the INCITS T10 (SCSI) and T13(ATA/ATAPI) standards committees.
Q. Will products based on the TCG SIIS work in today’s PC architectures?
A. Yes. Operation in legacy environments was a primary concern in the development of thedocument.
Q. Does the TCG SIIS address flash drives and other portable storage devices?
A. Yes. The SIIS addresses any type of storage device on the supported interfaces, transports,
and above mentioned SSCs.
Q. Does the SIIS describe the interaction between TCG security and interface-specificsecurity protocols?
A. Yes. The interaction between the ATA security feature set and TCG security is described in theSIIS.

Copyright © TCG 2018

Storage Interface Interactions
Specification (SIIS) FAQ

Q. Which versions of SIIS have been published and how do they differ?
A.
VersionPublished

Summary of changes fromthe previous version
Initial version with interactions
with ATA and SCSI interfaces.

1.00

January27, 20091.01

November
3, 20111) for all interfaces: added
specification of Current Maximum
LBA, clarified the specification ofbehavior when Transfer Length iszero;2) ATA: changed the base ATA
reference from ATA8-ACS to ACS-2,
clarified the Locking Templateinteractions with the ATA Security
feature set to include Locking SP
activation and revert functions,clarified the use of the ATA Sense
Data Reporting feature set in ATA
error reporting,added
specification of interaction of theATA Sanitize Device feature set withthe Locking SP
3) SCSI: added mapping of USB andUAS resets, clarified the use ofINC_512, (Tables 4 and 5):
indicated which standard or
specification defines the event, andremoved the false indication that allof the events were 'resets', (Table7): changed TRANSFER LENGTH toALLOCATION LENGTH and notedthat the non-zero length
requirement is a variance from thedefinition of the command in SPC-4;

1.02

December30, 2011

1) Support was added for the NVM
Express (NVMe) interface.

Copyright © TCG 2018

Storage Interface Interactions
Specification (SIIS) FAQVersionPublished

1.03

April 17,2015

1)
2)

3)
4)
5)

Summary of changes fromthe previous version
ATA: interaction of Enterprise SSC
with the SANITIZE command;
SCSI: added UAS and UFS
interfaces, interaction of Enterprise
SSC with the SANITIZE command;e•MMC: added new support;
cross reference updates; andminor some editorial cleanup.

1.03
ErrataAugust 5,
20151) corrections to error mappings for
NVMe.

1.04

August 18,
20151) ATA: interactions between Opal SSC
and the Sanitize Feature Set,
modifications to the interactions
between Enterprise SSC and theSanitize Feature Set,
2) NVMe: reset mappings, corrections
to NVMe error mappings,
3) cross reference updates; and4) minor some editorial cleanup.

1.05

March 16,2016

1) NVMe: indicating that the NSID fieldis ‘reserved’ in the IF-SEND and IFRECV commands, added Invalid
Security State and Access Denied tothe error translation table,
introduction of Namespace
Management interactions, changes
to the interactions with the Format
NVM command,2) cross reference updates; and3) minor some editorial cleanup.

Copyright © TCG 2018

Storage Interface Interactions
Specification (SIIS) FAQVersion

Published

1.06

May 12,
2016

1)
2)

3)

4)

5)
6)

Summary of changes fromthe previous versiondefinitions for ‘Opal family’, and‘Locking SP is owned’;interactions with ATA: Zoned Blockdevices, the SET SECTORCONFIGURATION EXT command,interactions with SCSI: Zoned Blockdevices, the FORMAT UNIT
command,interactions with NVMe: resets, useof NSID in IF-SEND and IF-RECV
commands, the MBR shadow, all
NVMe commands with the with theReadLocked and WriteLockedcolumns in the Locking table, theDeallocate subcommand of theDataset Management command;cross reference updates; andminor some editorial cleanup.

Copyright © TCG 2018

Storage Interface Interactions
Specification (SIIS) FAQVersionPublished

1.07

August 4,
2017

1)

2)

3)

4)

5)
6)
1.08

August 14,
2018

Summary of changes fromthe previous version
interactions with ATA: Zoned ATA
devices, Opal family and theSecurity feature set, DATA SETMANAGEMENT commands;
interactions with SCSI: READ LONG
and WRITE LONG commands,
Zoned Block devices, verify
commands, UNMAP commands,extended copy operations;interactions with NVMe: resets, useof NSID in IF-SEND and IF-RECV
commands,the DO NOT RETRY bitin error reporting, use of theOperation Denied error code,Namespace Management and thecase where there are nonamespaces defined, Opal familywith the Sanitize command;all commands for ATA/SCSI/NVMe
defining their interactions with theReadLocked and WriteLockedcolumns in the Locking table; andcross reference updates; andminor some editorial cleanup.

1) definition of “user data removalmethods”;
2) interactions with ATA: storage
element depopulation;3) interactions with SCSI: storage
element depopulation, READSTREAM(16), WRITE STREAM(16),
READ LONG commands;
4) interactions with NVMe: Format
NVM command; and5) cross reference updates; and6) minor some editorial cleanup.

Contact: press@trustedcomputinggroup.org.

Copyright © TCG 2018