Intel raid controller srcsas144e - Manual (Page 10)

1 Intel® RAID Controller SRCSAS144E Hardware Guide
1 Overview
This chapter provides a general overview of the Intel
®
RAID Controller SRCSAS144E. It
consists of the following sections:
• Summary of SAS RAID Controller Features
• Benefits of Serial Attached SCSI (SAS)
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.