Intel 12Gb/s, User Manual

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2 12Gb/s Intel® RAID Controllers User Guide
12Gb/s Intel
®
RAID Controllers with Support for RAID
Maintenance Free Back Units
The Intel
®
RAID Controller RS3DC0x0 supports the RAID Maintenance Free Backup
Unit that protects the integrity of the cached data on Intel
®
Integrated RAID Modules by
offloading the data stored in the RAM cache to NAND flash during a power loss event.
And it eliminates the need for lithium ion (Li-ion) batteries traditionally used to protect
DRAM cache memory on RAID controllers.
SAS/SATA Standards and Communication Protocols
The 12Gb/s Intel
®
RAID Controllers support the ANSI Serial Attached SCSI standard,
version 3.0 . In addition, the controller supports the SATA III protocol defined by the
Serial ATA specification, version 3.0 . Supporting both the SAS interface and the SATA
interface, the SAS controller is a versatile controller that provides the backbone of both
server and high-end workstation environments.
Each port on your RAID controller supports SAS devices, SATA devices, or both, by
using the following protocols:
•
SAS Serial SCSI Protocol (SSP), which enables communication with other SAS
devices
•
SATA, which enables communication with other SATA devices
•
Serial Management Protocol (SMP), which communicates topology management
information directly with an attached SAS expander device
•
Serial Tunneling Protocol (STP), which enables communication with SATA devices
through an attached expander
General Description
The 12Gb/s Intel
®
RAID Controllers bring 12.0 Gb/s Serial Attached SCSI and SATA III
performance to host adapter, workstation, and server designs. The 12Gb/s Intel
®
RAID
Controllers are based on the LSISAS3108 RAID On-a-Chip (ROC) device or the
LSISAS3008 SAS chip.
The controllers support internal storage devices and external storage devices, which allow
you to use a system that supports enterprise-class SAS drives and desktop-class SATA III
drives. Each 12Gb/s Intel
®
RAID Controller can connect to drives directly and can use
expanders to connect to additional drives. Simplified cabling between devices is an
additional benefit.
These devices are compliant with the Fusion-MPT
™
architecture and provides a PCIe x8
interface. Each port on the 12Gb/s Intel
®
RAID Controllers supports SAS devices, SATA
devices, or both, using SSP, SMP, STP, and SATA. The SSP protocol enables the 12Gb/s
Intel
®
RAID Controllers to communicate with other SAS devices. The SATA protocol
enables the 12Gb/s Intel
®
RAID Controllers to communicate with SATA devices.