Hardware User's Guide

Intel® RAID Controller RS2VB080/RS2VB040 Hardware User’s Guide 1
1 Overview
The Intel
®
RAID Controller RS2VB080/RS2VB040 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
RS2VB080/RS2VB040 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 (for RS2VB080) or four drives (for
RS2VB040) directly and allows the use of expanders to connect to additional drives. For
more information about the use of expanders, see the ANSI SAS Standard Specification,
Versio n 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 RAID controller has a pre-installed memory board on it, which provides 512MB
800MHz DDR2 memory as the RAID cache.
The SuperCap module in the shipping box provides cached data protection for the RAID
controller, even during system failures. The SuperCap module is able to keep functional in
the life cycle of the RAID controller.
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