Technical Product Specification

Hardware Intel® RAID Controller RS2BL080 and RS2MB044 Technical Product Specification
Revision 2.1
Intel order number E64388-004
20
2.7 Supported Device Technology
The various device technologies supported by the Intel
®
RAID Controller RS2BL080 and
RS2MB044 are described in the subsections that follow.
2.7.1 Support for Hard Disk Drive Devices
The Intel
®
RAID Controller RS2BL080 integrates eight internal high-performance SAS/SATA II
ports that support SAS and enterprise-class SATA hard drives. The Intel
®
RAID Controller
RS2MB044 integrates four internal and four external high-performance SAS/SATA II ports that
support SAS and enterprise-class SATA hard drives. Each port supports both SAS and SATA
devices using the SAS Serial SCSI Protocol (SSP), Serial Management Protocol (SMP), and
Serial Tunneling Protocol (STP). The SSP protocol enables communication with other SAS
devices. STP allows the SAS RAID controller to communicate with SATA devices using the
SATA commands.
2.7.2 SAS Expander Support
The Intel
®
RAID Controller RS2BL080 and RS2MB044 support LSI* expanders, Vitesse SAS
expanders, and PMC expanders that are used as a component in Intel enclosures. Other
expanders may be supported post launch, based on market conditions and customer
requirements.
2.7.3 Support for Non-Hard Disk Drive Devices
As SAS-based non-hard drive devices were not available when this controller was in
development, support for these devices will be determined as they become available. For
information on support for non-hard drive devices, see the Intel® RAID Controller RS2BL080,
RS2BL080DE and RS2MB044 Tested Hardware and Operating System List.
2.7.4 Enclosure Management Support
The Intel
®
RAID Controller RS2BL080 and RS2MB044 support SES2 enclosure management
in-band to expander-based backplanes and out-of-band to direct-connect backplanes. These
RAID Controllers also support the internal SAS sideband signal SFF-8485 (SGPIO) enclosure
management interface.