Intel® RAID Adapters RSP3TD160, RSP3MD088, RSP3DD080 and RSP3WD080 Hardware User Guide
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4.5
NVMe Drive Support
The Intel® Tri-Mode RAID adapters are designed to support SAS, SATA and NVMe drives; however, if desired,
they can be used to connect only NVMe drives.
Note1:
At launch time no mixed mode is allowed, this means that either SAS/SATA or NVMe drives can be
used but not the combination of the two. The mixed mode will be supported at a later firmware version.
The support for NVMe drives is limited to the U.2 (SFF-8639) form factor, connected through a supported
backplane using a specially designed Tri-Mode cable. This cable has one (1) dual SF- SFF-8643 (Mini-SAS
High-Density) on one end and two (2) OCuLink connectors on the other end to connect to the backplane (the
backplane too has both, SF- SFF-8643 and OCuLink connectors). The Intel Part Number for this cable is
AXXCBL700HDCV and it connects up to two NVMe drives.
Note2:
Previous generation servers like the R2000WT family or the S2600CW family provide support for
NVME drives using a special NVMe kit which includes a backplane. This backplane only has SFF-8643 (Mini-
SAS HD) connectors and is NOT compatible with the Tri-Mode RAID Adapters.
Note 3:
Using the cable AXXCBL700HDCV on a RAID adapter other than the Tri-Mode RAID adapters can
damage your equipment. Only use the cables intended for those adapters.
The next figures show how to connect the AXXCBL700HDCV cable
