®
Intel RAID Controller SRCSAS144E
Hardware Guide
Intel Order Number: D39308-003
Preface
This is the primary reference and user’s guide for the Intel® RAID Controller
SRCSAS144E, which can be used for SAS and SATA disk drives. It contains installation
instructions and specifications.
For details on how to configure the storage adapters, and for an overview of the software
drivers, see the Software User’s Guide on the Resource CD.
Audience
This document assumes that you have some familiarity with RAID controllers and related
support devices. The people who benefit from this book are:
• Engineers who are designing a RAID Controller SRCSAS144E storage adapter into a
system.
• Anyone installing a RAID Controller SRCSAS144E storage adapter in a RAID
system.
Organization
This document includes the following chapters and appendixes:
storage adapter.
Controller SRCSAS144E storage adapter.
Related Publication
The Software User’s Guide on the Resource CD that is included with the RAID controller.
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Contents
Preface ........................................................................................................................iii
Organization ......................................................................................................................... iii
Chapter 1, Overview ...................................................................................................1
Summary of SAS RAID Controller Features ..........................................................................1
Usability .........................................................................................................................2
Redundancy and Error Handling ...................................................................................3
SAS and SATA Features ...............................................................................................4
Beep Codes ...................................................................................................................5
Benefits of Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) ................................................................................5
®
Requirements ........................................................................................................................6
Installation ..............................................................................................................................7
Connecting the Cables ..........................................................................................................9
Configuring the Storage Adapter .........................................................................................11
Replacing a Controller .........................................................................................................12
Resolving a Configuration Mismatch ...................................................................................12
®
Technical Specifications ......................................................................................................14
Array Performance Features .......................................................................................15
Fault Tolerance ............................................................................................................16
Electrical Characteristics .............................................................................................16
Safety Characteristics ..................................................................................................17
A. Glossary of Terms and Abbreviations ...............................................................18
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Figures
Figure 3. SAS and SATA Plugs and SAS Backplane Connector............................................ 10
Figure 4. Intel® RAID Controller SRCSAS144E to a SATA Hard Drive .................................. 11
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Intel® RAID Controller SRCSAS144E Hardware Guide
Tables
Table 2. Specifications ............................................................................................................14
Table 3. Array Performance Features .....................................................................................15
Table 4. Fault Tolerance Features ..........................................................................................16
Intel® RAID Controller SRCSAS144E Hardware Guide
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1 Overview
This chapter provides a general overview of the Intel® RAID Controller SRCSAS144E. It
consists of the following sections:
The Intel® RAID Controller SRCSAS144E Storage Adapter is a high-performance
intelligent PCI Express* SAS RAID controller. It provides reliability, high performance,
and fault-tolerant disk subsystem management. This is an ideal RAID solution for the
internal storage needs of workgroup, departmental, and enterprise systems. The RAID
Controller SRCSAS144E offers a cost-effective way to implement RAID in a server for
internal and external storage.
The SAS controller allows you to use SATA and SAS hard disk drives in the same system,
so you can take advantage of the benefits of each type of drive. The controller can connect
up to eight drives directly and use expanders to connect to additional drives. See the ANSI
SAS standard, version 1.0 specification for more information about the use of expanders.
As the second generation PCI Express storage adapter, the RAID Controller
SRCSAS144E addresses the growing demand for increased data throughput and
scalability requirements across midrange and enterprise-class server platforms. Simplified
cabling between drives is an additional benefit.
The optional Intel® RAID Smart Battery for cached data protection allows system
builders to protect cached data during catastrophic system failures.
Summary of SAS RAID Controller Features
Note: In this document, the term low-profile refers to the height, not the length, of a PCI add-in
card.
The Intel® RAID Controller SRCSAS144E is an intelligent low-profile RAID adapter
with:
• An Intel® IOP333 I/O processor running at 500 MHz.
• An LSI 1068 SAS (including SATA) controller.
• 128 MB RAM.
• Eight independent ports:
— Four internal ports provided via the SFF8087 connector.
— Four external ports provided via the SFF8470 connector.
• Support for both enterprise-class SAS devices and desktop-class SATA drives.
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Intel® RAID Controller SRCSAS144E Hardware Guide
• Support for up to 32 SAS or SATA drives and 40 logical drives.
• PCI Express* connector that fits into a x8 PCI Express slot capable of 2.5 Gbps per
lane over PCI Express x1, or x4.
• 3.0 Gbps point-to-point transfer rate.
• Both a standard and a low-profile bracket.
The SAS controller supports the ANSI Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) standard, version 1.0.
In addition, the controller supports the Serial ATA (SATA) protocol defined by the Serial
ATA specification, version 1.0a.T he SAS controller is a versatile controller that
supporting both the SAS and SATA interfaces and provides the backbone of both server
and high-end workstation environments.
Protocols supported include:
• Serial SCSI Protocol (SSP): Communication with other SAS devices.
• SATA II Protocol: Communication with other SATA II devices.
• Serial Management Protocol (SMP): Topology management information sharing with
expanders.
• Serial Tunneling Protocol (STP) support for SATA II through expander interfaces.
Usability
• Smaller, thinner cabling with serial point-to-point 3.0 Gbps data transfer rates.
• Allows mixed connections to SAS or SATA targets.
• Support for non disk devices and mixed capacity drives.
• Support for intelligent XOR RAID levels 0, 1, 5, 10, and 50.
• Dedicated or global hot spare with auto rebuild if an array drive fails.
• User defined stripe size per drive (8, 16, 32, 64 (def), or 128 KB).
• Advanced array configuration and management utilities that provide:
— Online Capacity Expansion (OCE) adds space to existing drive or new drive.
— Online RAID level migration (upgrade of RAID mode, may require OCE).
— Drive migration.
— Drive roaming.
— No reboot necessary after expansion.
• An upgradeable Flash ROM interface.
• Allows for staggered spin up, hot plug, lower power consumption.
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• User specified rebuild rate (% of system resources to use from 0-100%).
Warning: Exceeding 50% rate may cause operating system errors caused by
waiting for controller access.
• Background operating mode can be set for rebuilds, consistency checks, initialization
(auto restarting consistency check on redundant volumes), migration, OCE, and patrol
read.
Redundancy and Error Handling
• Enclosure management support, including LEDs.
• Activity and fault indicators per drive, port selector (dual-port drives).
• Drive coercion (auto resizing to match existing disks).
• Auto-detection of failed drives with transparent rebuild. Disk activity (I/O to the
drive) must be present for a missing drive to be marked as failed.
• Auto-resume on reboot of initialization or rebuild (must be enabled before virtual disk
creation).
• Smart initialization automatically checks consistency of virtual disks if there are five
or more disks in a RAID 5 array which optimizes performance by enabling read-
modify-write mode. RAID 5 arrays of only three or overdrives use peer read mode.
• Dirty cache LED plus cache write to disk error reporting.
• Smart Technology predicts failures of drives and electronic components.
• Patrol Read checks drives and maps bad sectors.
• Commands are retried at least four times.
• Firmware provides best effort to recognize an error and recover from it if possible.
• Failures are logged from controller and drive firmware, SMART monitor, SAF-TE
controller.
• Failures are logged in NVRAM, viewable from OS Event Log, Intel® RAID Web
Console 2; CIM, LEDs, and via alarm.
• Multiple cache options provide choice of speed, redundancy:
— Write: The data written / (done) signal is returned when data is written to drive or
only to cache:
^
Write-back (default): Faster, because it since doesn't wait for the disk, but
data will be lost if power is lost.
^
Write-through: Slower, but ensures data is on the disk.
— Read Ahead: Predicts the next read will be sequential and buffers this data into
the cache:
^
NonRead Ahead: Always reads from the drive after determining the exact
location of each read.
^
Adaptive Read Ahead: Will read ahead and cache data only if doing
sequential reads.
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— I/0 setting: Determines whether to read/write from cache to improve performance:
^
^
Cache I/O: Writes to the cache and next read checks the cache first.
Direct I/O: Never uses cache, all data goes from host to disk to host.
• Redundancy through:
— Configuration stored in nonvolatile RAM and on the drives (COD).
— Hot swap support.
— Optional battery backup for cache memory. Controller provides fast or trickle
charges.
SAS and SATA Features
• Provides eight independent phys, each supporting 3.0 Gbps and 1.5 Gbps SAS and
SATA data transfers.
• Scalable interface that supports up to 15 SATA devices, 40 logical devices, or 32 SAS
devices via expanders.
• Transfers data using SCSI information units.
• Supports SSP to enable communication with other SAS devices.
• Supports SMP to communicate topology management information.
• Supports single PHY or wide ports consisting of 2, 3, or 4 PHY within a single quad
port.
• Allows addressing of multiple SATA targets through an expander if using SATA 2.0-
compliant hard disk drives.
• Allows multiple initiators to address a single target (in a fail-over configuration)
through an expander.
Online Capacity Expansion and RAID Level Migration Rules
• Migration must occur to the same or larger capacity configuration.
• Migration cannot occur if there is more than one virtual disk in a logical array.
• Migration and OCE cannot be done on Spanned Arrays (RAID 10, 50).
• Migrations supported are: RAID 1 to RAID 0, RAID 5 to RAID 0.
• With OCE, migrations supported are RAID 0 to RAID 1, RAID 0 to RAID 5, RAID 1
to RAID 5.
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Operating System Support
The RAID Controller SRCSAS144E supports major operating systems, including:
• Windows 2000*, Windows Server 2003*, and Windows XP*
• Red Hat* Enterprise Linux 3.0 and 4.0
• SuSe* Linux Enterprise Server 9 and 9 SP1
Note: The operating systems supported by this controller may not be supported by your server
board. See the tested operating system list for your server board at
operating system list for the RAID Controller SRCSAS144E to make sure the RAID card
supports your operating system.
Beep Codes
• Short beep, 1 second on, 1 second off: The array is degraded, but no data is lost
• Long beep, 3 seconds on, 1 second off: The array has failed and data has been lost.
• Short beep, 1 second on, 3 seconds off: Using hot spare in rebuild. The alarm will
continue during the rebuild with a different sound at completion.
To disable the alarm, choose Disable Alarm. To disable the alarm only until the next event
or until the next power cycle, choose Silence Alarm. To enable the alarm, choose Enable
Alarm.
Benefits of Serial Attached SCSI (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 FC, 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 when compared to 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, allow connections to smaller devices, and do
not inhibit airflow. The point-to-point SATA architecture eliminates inherent difficulties
created by the legacy ATA master-slave architecture, while maintaining compatibility with
existing ATA firmware.
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Intel® RAID Controller SRCSAS144E Hardware Guide
®
2 Intel RAID Controller
SRCSAS144E
Hardware Installation
This chapter describes the procedures used to install the Intel® RAID Controller
SRCSAS144E with internal and external connectors.
Requirements
The following items are required to install a RAID Controller SRCSAS144E:
• An Intel® RAID Controller SRCSAS144E.
• A host system with an available x4 or x8 bi-directional PCI Express* slot.
• The Resource CD, which contains drivers and documentation.
• The cables provided with the RAID controller.
• SAS or SATA hard disk drives.
Intel Corporation strongly recommends using an uninterruptible power supply (UPS).
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Installation
1. Power off the computer and all drives, enclosures, and system components. Remove
the power cord from the computer.
2. Remove the chassis cover and access the PCI Express add-in card slots. See your
server chassis documentation for instructions.
3. Align the controller’s connector with a x4 or x8 PCI Express* slot on the server
board.
4. Press down gently but firmly to ensure that the card is properly seated in the slot, as
AF000645
Figure 1. Inserting the Intel® RAID Controller SRCSAS144E into a PCI
Express* Slot
5. Connect the provided internal and/or external cables into the adapter using the 4-port
combined end. Make sure the controller and cables are properly attached.
— If using an external cable, plug the cable into the connector in the end bracket.
— If using an internal cable, plug the cable into connector at the inside edge of the
adapter.
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Intel® RAID Controller SRCSAS144E Hardware Guide
Note: System throughput problems can occur if using SAS cables that do not come with the
RAID controller and that are not the correct type. To minimize the potential for problems:
- Use cables no longer than ten meters for SAS and one meter for SATA. It is better to use
the shortest possible cables. The cable length should be reduced by about one foot (.33
meters) if using a backplane.
- You may connect one device per SATA/SAS cable either as a device or as an expander.
- Route SAS cables carefully.
- Use only “straight” SAS cables, not “cross-over” SAS cables.
6. Replace components you needed to remove to access the PCI Express add-in card
slot. See your server chassis documentation for instructions.
7. Reinstall the chassis cover and reconnect the power cord(s). See your server chassis
documentation for instructions.
8. Reconnect any peripheral items you needed to disconnect.
9. Turn the power on to the server and hard drives. As the server powers up, listen to be
sure that the SAS and SATA devices are powered up before or at the same time as the
computer boots.
10. Watch the boot process until you see a BIOS message to inform you of the key
combination to press to enter the RAID BIOS Console. It will look similar to the
following message:
Press <CTRL><G> to run BIOS Console 2.
This message will time out after several seconds and pass the option to get into the BIOS
Console.
The firmware takes several seconds to initialize and will then display the RAID Controller
SRCSAS144E number and firmware version. The numbering of the controllers follows
the PCI slot scanning order used by the server board.
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Connecting the Cables
This section describes the cables used on the SAS controller and provides instructions for
connecting SAS and SATA hard disk drives to the SAS RAID controller.
Note: Use only “straight” SAS cables, not “cross-over” SAS cables.
Figure 2 shows the cable used to connect the internal connectors on a SAS RAID
controller to SATA drives. The cable supplied with the Intel® RAID Controller
SRCSAS144E is for SATA drives or a SAS backplane connection.
HDD
Connector
Serial Signal
Cables
RSA to HDD Breakout Cable
Figure 2. Internal SAS Cable for Connection to SAS Backplane or SATA
Hard Drives
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Intel® RAID Controller SRCSAS144E Hardware Guide
A SATA connector consists of a signal connector and a power connector. The SAS
connector adds a bridge (primary physical link) between the signal connector and the
power connector. This means SAS backplane connectors can accept either drive type, but
connectors.
Serial Att ached SCSI
Power
SAS Backplane
Recept acle Connector
SAS Primary
Physical Link
Power
Serial A TA
SAS Secondary
Physical Link
Power
SATA/SAS
Primary
Physical Link
SATA
Physical Link
Note: SA TA backplane connectors
will NOT accept SAS drives
Figure 3. SAS and SATA Plugs and SAS Backplane Connector
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Perform the following steps to connect a RAID Controller SRCSAS144E directly to a
SAS backplane or to SATA hard drives. When cabling directly to hard drives or to
backplanes that do not include expander support, use one cable per drive. When cabling to
backplanes that include expander support, use one or two cables per backplane.
1. Connect the 4-port connector on the internal cable into the connector on the RAID
Controller SRCSAS144E.
2. Connect between one and four of the connectors on the other end of the cable into the
connector on a SAS backplane or SATA hard drive, or into a backplane that has
expander support (Intel product codes AXX6DRV3GEXP or AXX4DRV3GEXP).
Figure 4. Intel® RAID Controller SRCSAS144E to a SATA Hard Drive
Configuring the Storage Adapter
After performing the Intel® RAID Controller SRCSAS144E installation, you must
configure the storage adapter and install the operating system driver. The Software User’s
Guide instructs you on the configuration options and how to set them on your RAID
Controller SRCSAS144E, and provides detailed installation instructions for operating
system drivers.
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Intel® RAID Controller SRCSAS144E Hardware Guide
Replacing a Controller
Perform the following steps to replace a failed controller.
1. Power off the computer and all drives, enclosures, and system components. Remove
the power cord.
2. Remove the chassis cover and access the PCI Express add-in card slots. See your
server documentation for instructions.
3. Disconnect the cable(s) from the RAID controller.
4. Remove the failed controller from the system.
5. Insert the replacement controller into the system. Follow the instructions under
Resolving a Configuration Mismatch
If a replacement RAID Controller SRCSAS144E has a previous configuration, a message
displays during POST stating that there is a configuration mismatch. A configuration
mismatch occurs when the configuration data in the NVRAM and the hard disk drives
are different. You need to update the configuration data in the NVRAM with the data
from the hard disk drive.
Perform the following steps to resolve the mismatch.
1. Press <Ctrl> <G> when prompted during the boot process to access the BIOS
Configuration Utility.
2. Select Configure—>View/Add Configuration. This allows viewing of the NVRAM
and drive configurations.
3. Select the configuration on disk because the drives contain the correct configuration.
4. Press <Esc> and select YESto update the NVRAM.
5. Exit and reboot.
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®
3 Intel RAID Controller
SRCSAS144E Characteristics
This chapter describes the characteristics of the Intel® RAID Controller SRCSAS144E.
Figure 5. Card Layout
s
Table 1. Jumper Descriptions
Jumper
Description
Type
2-pin
Comments
J4
Flash Recovery
jumper
If a normal firmware update fails, place a jumper
across the J4 pins and reflash. The card will not
function as a controller until the jumper is
removed.
J5
J6
Port activity LED
8 x 2
header
LED signal for activity per port for eight ports.
2
SAF-TE I C header 3-pin
SAF-TE Enclosure management support.
Warning: Do not connect to a non-expander SAS
backplane or data loss may occur.
2
J7
J8
SES I C header
SES2 Enclosure management support.
Cache write
pending LED
2-pin
Provides a signal indicating the cache has data to
write.
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Intel® RAID Controller SRCSAS144E Hardware Guide
Table 1. Jumper Descriptions
Jumper
Description
Type
8 x 2
Comments
J9
Drive fault LEDs
LED signal on drive fault per port for eight ports.
header
Warning: May not display correctly if only internal
ports are used.
®
J11
Intel RAID Smart
20-pin
Cable connector for the battery pack. This is
located on the back (non-connector) side of the
board.
Battery connector
Technical Specifications
The design and implementation of the Intel® RAID Controller SRCSAS144E minimizes
electromagnetic emissions, susceptibility to radio frequency energy, and the effects of
electrostatic discharge. See the appendices for regulatory marks and certifications.
Table 2. Specifications
®
Specification
Processor
Intel RAID Controller SRCSAS144E
®
Intel 80333 I/O processor at 500 MHz
(PCI Controller)
Operating Voltage
Card Size
+3.3 V, +12 V
Low-profile PCI Express* adapter card size (7.71 inches by 2.535 inches)
PCI Express* Rev 1.0A, x4 lane width 2.5 Gbps
Array Interface
to Host
SAS Bus Speed
SAS Controller
3 GBps per port, point-to-point
One LSI SAS 1068 controller
SAS / SATA Ports
1x4 internal ports, 1x4 external ports. Supports 32 SAS/SATA devices
using expanders, 40 virtual disks.
Cache
Integrated 128 MB RAM, optional battery backup
4 MB in reflashable flash ROM
Firmware
Compatible Devices
Mixed capacity, mixed SATA and SAS in different enclosures; non-disk
devices, including expanders.
Cabling
Small, thin cables do not restrict airflow; shared connectors for multiple
drive types.
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Table 2. Specifications
®
Specification
Redundant
Intel RAID Controller SRCSAS144E
32 Kb NVRAM and config on disk (COD) store RAID configuration.
Configuration
2
Enclosure
I C out-of-band, SES2 in-band, SAF-TE (LEDs)
Management
Array Performance Features
Table 3 shows the RAID Controller SRCSAS144E array performance features.
Table 3. Array Performance Features
®
Specification
Intel RAID Controller SRCSAS144E
PCI Express* Host
Data Transfer Rate
2.5 Gigabit/s per lane
3 Gigabit/s per lane
26 elements
Drive Data Transfer
Rate
Maximum
Scatter/Gathers
Maximum Size of I/O 6.4 Mbytes in 64 Kbyte stripes
Requests
Maximum Queue
Tags per Drive
As many as the drive can accept
Stripe Sizes
8, 16, 32, 64, or 128 Kbyte
255
Maximum Number
of Concurrent
Commands
Support for Multiple
Initiators
Yes
Flexibility
Drive migration, RAID level migration; drive roaming online capacity
expansion, without reboot
Background Services Rebuild, consistency check, initialization, migration, OCE, and patrol read
Cache Options
Write-back or write-through, read ahead, adaptive read ahead, non-read
ahead, cache I/O or direct I/O
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Intel® RAID Controller SRCSAS144E Hardware Guide
Fault Tolerance
Table 4 shows the RAID Controller SRCSAS144E fault tolerance features.
Table 4. Fault Tolerance Features
®
Specification
Self Monitoring
Intel RAID Controller SRCSAS144E
Detects up to 70% of all predictable disk drive failures and monitors the
Analysis and Reporting internal performance of all motors, heads, and drive electronics.
Technology (SMART)
support
®
Optional Battery
Backup
Intel RAID Smart Battery cache backup. Up to 64 hours of data
retention. Trickle / fast charging. Charge indicator.
Drive Replacement
Auto detection of hard drive failure; hot-plug, hot-swap. User set rebuild
rate.
Drive Rebuild Using
Hot Spares
Automatic at drive failure; dedicated per array; global per array; auto-
resume of initialization or rebuild on reboot
Error Checking and
Indication
Parity generation and checking, automatic consistency checking; patrol
reads; activity and fault LEDs
Power Conservation
Staggered spin-up, lower power requirements.
Electrical Characteristics
This section provides the power requirements for the RAID Controller SRCSAS144Es.
Table 5 lists the maximum power requirements.
Table 5. Electrical Characteristics
PCI / PCI
Operating
Range
Temperature
PCI / PCI Express*
/ Express +12 V
Express /
Express
+3.3 V
PCI PRSNT1# / 2#
Power
PCI / +5.0 V
115 mA; used only if 1.5 A
N/A
15.6 W
0° C to 45° C
battery is present
(PCI only)
18.3 W with battery
charging
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Thermal and Atmospheric Characteristics
The thermal and atmospheric characteristics are:
• Relative humidity range: 5% to 90% non-condensing
• Maximum dew point temperature: 32° C
• Airflow must be at least 300 linear feet per minute (SFPM) to avoid operating the
80333 processor above the maximum ambient temperature
The storage and transit environment conditions are:
• Temperature range from -30° C to 80° C (dry bulb) without battery, 0° C to 45° C (dry
bulb) with battery.
• Relative humidity range: 5% to 90% non-condensing
Safety Characteristics
The RAID Controller SRCSAS144E meets or exceeds the requirements of UL
flammability rating 94 V0. Each bare board is also marked with the supplier name or
trademark, type, and UL flammability rating. For the boards installed in a PCI Express*
bus slot, all voltages are lower than the SELV 42.4 V limit.
The design and implementation minimizes electromagnetic emissions, susceptibility to
radio frequency energy, and the effects of electrostatic discharge. The adapter carries the
CE mark, C-tick mark, FCC self-certification logo, Canadian compliance statement,
Korean MIC, Taiwan BSMI, and Japan VCCI. The adapter meets the requirements of
CISPR Class B. Both the adapter and battery are CCSA C22.2, No. 60950-1, UL60950-1
First Edition listed accessory, UL filenumber E257743.
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Intel® RAID Controller SRCSAS144E Hardware Guide
A Glossary of Terms and
Abbreviations
BIOS
Basic Input/Output System. Software that provides basic read/write capability.
Usually kept as firmware (ROM based). The system BIOS on a server board is used
to boot and control the system. The BIOS on your host adapter acts as an extension
of the system BIOS.
Configuration
Device Driver
The way a computer is setup; the combined hardware components (computer,
monitor, keyboard, and peripheral devices) that make up a computer system, and the
software settings that allow the hardware components to communicate with each
other.
A program that allows a microprocessor (through the operating system) to direct the
operation of a peripheral device.
Domain
Validation
A software procedure in which a host queries a device to determine its ability to
communicate at the negotiated data rate.
EEPROM
Electronically Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory. A memory chip
typically used to store configuration information. It provides stable storage for long
periods without electricity and can be reprogrammed. See NVRAM.
External SAS
Device
A SAS device installed outside the computer cabinet. These devices are connected
together using specific types of shielded cables.
Host
The computer system in which a storage adapter is installed. It uses the storage
adapter to transfer information to and from devices attached to the SCSI bus.
Host Adapter
Board (HAB)
A circuit board or integrated circuit that provides a device connection to the
computer system.
Internal SAS
Device
A SAS device installed inside the computer cabinet. These devices are connected
together using an unshielded ribbon cable.
Main Memory
The part of a computer’s memory which is directly accessible by the CPU (usually
synonymous with RAM).
NVRAM
Non-volatile Random Access Memory. An EEPROM (Electronically Erasable
Read-Only Memory chip) used to store configuration information. See EEPROM.
Peripheral
Devices
A piece of hardware (such as a video monitor, disk drive, printer, or CD-ROM) used
with a computer and under the computer’s control. SCSI peripherals are controlled
through a SAS Intel® RAID Controller SRCSAS144E.
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SAS
Serial Attached SCSI. A serial, point-to-point, enterprise-level device interface that
leverages the proven SCSI protocol set. The SAS interface provides improved
performance, simplified cabling, smaller connections, lower pin count, and lower
power requirements when compared to parallel SCSI. SAS controllers leverage a
common electrical and physical connection interface that is compatible with Serial
ATA. The SAS controllers support the ANSI Serial Attached SCSI standard, version
1.0. In addition, the controller supports the Serial ATA (SATA) protocol defined by
the Serial ATA specification, version 1.0a. Each port on the SAS RAID controller
supports SAS and SATA devices.
SAS Device
Any device that conforms to the SAS standard and is attached to the SAS bus by a
SAS cable. This includes SAS storage adapters (host adapters) and SAS peripherals.
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