Intel SASMF8I 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 high-end workstation environments. Protocols supported include: • Serial SCSI Protocol (SSP): Communication with other SAS devices. • SATA II Protocol: Communication with other 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 software RAID levels 0, 1, 5, and 10. • Global 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 migration. - Drive roaming. • An upgradeable Flash ROM interface. • Allows for staggered spin-up, hot plug, and lower power consumption. • User specified rebuild rate (% of system resources to use from 0-100%). Warning: Exceeding 50% rate may cause operating system errors caused by waiting for controller access. • Background operating mode can be set for rebuilds, consistency checks,and initialization (auto restarting consistency check on redundant volumes). Redundancy and Error Handling • Enclosure management support, including LEDs. • Activity and fault indicators per drive, port selector (dual-port drives). • Drive coercion (auto resizing to match existing disks). • Auto-detection of failed drives with transparent rebuild. Disk activity (I/O to the drive) must be present for a missing drive to be marked as failed. 2 Intel® RAID Controller SASMF8I Hardware User's Guide