Intel SRCSAS18E User Manual

2

The RAID Controller SRCSAS18E is available with eight ports via two x4 SFF8484 

connectors. The RAID Controller SRCSAS18E has one Intel

®

 IOP333 I/O processor that 

controls the SAS interface. 

The RAID Controller SRCSAS18E brings 3.0 Gbit/s Serial Attached SCSI and 3.0 Gbit/s 

SATA performance to host adapter, workstation, and server designs. The controller 

support internal storage devices and allows you to use a system that supports enterprise-

class SAS and desktop-class SATA drives.

The SAS controller integrates eight high-performance SAS/SATA phys. Each of the eight 

phys is capable of 3.0 Gbit/s SAS link rates, and 3.0 Gbit/s SATA link rates. 

The SAS RAID controller supports the SAS protocol as described in the Serial Attached 

SCSI Standard, version 1.0, as well as SAS 1.1 features. The controller also supports the 

Serial ATA protocol defined by the Serial ATA specification, version 1.0a. In addition, the 

SAS RAID controller supports the following SATA features:

• 3 Gbit/s SATA
• Staggered spin-up
• Hot Plug
• Native Command Queuing (NCQ)

• Activity and fault indicators per phy
• Port Selector (for dual-port drives)

Each port on the SAS controller supports SAS and SATA devices using the SAS Serial 

SCSI Protocol (SSP), Serial Management Protocol (SMP), Serial Tunneling Protocol 

(STP), and SATA. The SSP protocol enables communication with other SAS devices. 

SATA enables the SAS controller to communicate with other SATA devices. The SAS 

RAID controller supports a x8 PCI Express interface. 

The following scenerio is an example of how to use the SAS controller on the RAID 

Controller SRCSAS18E: 

• Low-end, internal SATA configurations: as a high-end SATA-compatible controller 

that connects up to eight disks either directly or through a port expander. Enclosure 

management through out-of-band I2C. Mostly for low end or entry servers

• Midrange internal SAS configurations: like internal SATA configurations, but with 

high-end disks. Suitable for low- to mid- range servers.

Figure 1 shows a direct-connect configuration.