Intel SASWT4I Hardware User Guide - Page 12

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. The SAS controller is a versatile controller that supports both the SAS and SATA interfaces and provides the backbone of both server and workstation environments. Protocols supported include: • Serial SCSI Protocol (SSP): Communication with other SAS devices. • SATA II Protocol: Communication with 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 II targets. • Support for non-disk devices and mixed capacity drives. • Support for RAID levels 0, 1, 1E and 10E. • Hot spare with auto rebuild if an array drive fails. • Fixed RAID stripe size of 64 KB. • Advanced array configuration and management utilities that provide drive roaming. • An upgradeable Flash ROM interface. • Allows for staggered spin-up, hot plug, and lower power consumption. Redundancy and Error Handling • In-band SES enclosure management support, including fault LEDs (Expander backplane must be used in order to support fault LED. No fault LED option is possible or expected in direct HDD connect mode). • Activity and fault indicators per drive, port selector (dual-port drives). • Auto-detection of failed drives with transparent rebuild. • Commands are retried up to four times. • SMART technology predicts failures of drives and electronic components for drives in IR mode. • Firmware provides best effort to recognize an error and recover from it if possible. • Failures are logged from controller and drive firmware. • Failures are logged in Intel® RAID Web Console 2, CIM, and LEDs. • Multiple cache options provide choice of speed and redundancy: 2 Intel® RAID Controller SASWT4I Hardware User's Guide