Hardware User Guide

12Gb/s Intel® RAID Controllers User Guide 10
These RAID controllers support 64-bit logical block addressing (LBA), which makes it
possible to connect a large number of drives to the RAID controller, directly and through
expanders. However, the actual number of drives that you can attach depends on the limits
listed in this table rather than by actual RAID volume capacity.
SATA III Features
The following list describes the SATA III features of the RAID controllers:
• They support SATA III data transfers of 6Gb/s for LSISAS3108-based controllers.
• They support STP data transfers of 3Gb/s.
• They provide a serial, point-to-point storage interface.
• They simplify cabling between devices.
• They eliminate the master-slave construction used in parallel ATA.
• They permit addressing of multiple SATA targets through an expander.
• They permit multiple initiators to address a single target (in a fail-over
configuration) through an expander.
PCI Express Performance
The following list describes the PCIe performance features of the RAID controllers:
• They provide a PCIe interface that does the following:
— Supports a dedicated PCIe bus.
— Supports x8 lane configuration.
— Supports transfer rates of up to 8GT/s per lane.
— Complies with the PCI Express specification, Revision 3.0, and the Serial ATA
specification, version 3.0.
• They provide unequaled performance through the Fusion-MPT architecture.
• They provide high throughput and low CPU utilization to offload the host
processor.
Usability Features
The following list describes the usability features of the RAID controllers:
• They simplify cabling with point-to-point, serial architecture.
• They support smaller, thinner cables that do not restrict airflow.
• They provide drive spin-up sequencing control.
• They provide one LED signal for each PHY to indicate link activity (this is a fault
LED only for controllers with internal port connectors).
• They provide an I
2
C interface for enclosure management.