Intel RS2BL080 - RAID Controller, Hardware User'S Manual

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Intel® RAID Controller RS2BL080 Hardware User’s Guide 1
1
Overview
The Intel
®
RAID Controller RS2BL080 is a high-performance, intelligent PCI Express*
2.0-compliant SAS/SATA II RAID controller that offers reliability, high performance, and
fault-tolerant disk subsystem management. This is a RAID solution that meets the internal
storage needs of workgroup, department, or enterprise systems to use cost-effective SATA
or high-performance SAS media.
As a second-generation PCI Express* RAID controller, the Intel
®
RAID Controller
RS2BL080 addresses the growing demand for increased data throughput and scalability
requirements across mid-range and enterprise-class server platforms.
The controller can be connected to up to eight drives directly and allows the use of
expanders to connect to additional drives. Note that all expander features will not be
available at product launch. For more information about the use of expanders, see the
ANSI SAS Standard Specification, Version 2.0 .
SATA and SAS are serial, point-to-point device interfaces that use simplified cabling,
smaller connectors, lower pin counts, and lower power requirements than parallel SCSI.
The optional Intel
®
RAID Smart Battery AXXRSBBU7 provide cached data protection
for the RAID controller, even during system failures.
Benefits of SAS
SAS is a serial, point-to-point, enterprise-level device interface that leverages the proven
SCSI protocol set. SAS is a convergence of the advantages of SATA, SCSI, and Fibre
Channel, and is the future mainstay of the enterprise and high-end workstation storage
markets. SAS offers a higher bandwidth per pin than parallel SCSI and improves signal
and data integrity.
The SAS interface uses the proven SCSI command set to ensure reliable data transfers,
while providing the connectivity and flexibility of point-to-point serial data transfers. The
serial transmission of SCSI commands eliminates clock skew challenges. The SAS
interface provides improved performance, simplified cabling, smaller connectors, lower
pin count, and lower power requirements than parallel SCSI.
SAS controllers leverage a common electrical and physical connection interface that is
compatible with Serial ATA technology. The SAS and SATA protocols use a thin, 7-wire
connector instead of the 68-wire SCSI cable or 40-wire ATA cable. The SAS/SATA
connector and cable are easier to manipulate, connect to smaller devices, and do not
inhibit airflow. The point-to-point SATA architecture eliminates difficulties created by the
legacy ATA master-slave architecture while maintaining compatibility with existing ATA
firmware.