How does that make any sense? SAS is not interchangeable with SATA either. SAS is just the newer SCSI technology. SAS stands for 'serial-attached scsi.'
A SAS controller can run a SAS drive or a SATA drive but a SATA controller cannot run a SAS drive.
They're fast, btw.. partly because the drives are at 15krpm, partly because the drives have more of their own processing, and partly because SAS controllers are typically much better than on-board SATA controllers. But, from what I've seen, unless you have a few 15k rpm SAS drives in RAID 0 on an expensive SAS controller, todays' fast SSD drives will beat it.