Nvme Drive Support; Figure 15. Connecting The Axxcbl700Hdcv To The Backplane - Intel RMSP3AD16OF Hardware User's Manual

Intel® RAID Modules RMSP3AD160F, RMSP3CD080F and RMSP3HD080E Hardware User Guide
4.5

NVMe Drive Support

The Intel® Tri-Mode RAID modules are designed to support SAS, SATA and NVMe drives; however, if desired,
they can be used to connect only NVMe drives.
The support for NVMe drives is limited to the U.2 (SFF-8639) form factor, connected through a supported
backplane using a specially designed Tri-Mode cable. This cable has one (1) dual SF- SFF-8643 (Mini-SAS
High-Density) on one end and two (2) OCuLink connectors on the other end to connect to the backplane (the
backplane too has both, SF- SFF-8643 and OCuLink connectors). The Intel Part Number for this cable is
AXXCBL700HDCV and it connects up to two NVMe drives. Due to limitations on the AXXCBL700HDCV cable,
it is only supported on the 2U systems.
Note 1: Previous generation servers like the R2000WT family or the S2600CW family provide support for
NVME drives using a special NVMe kit which includes a backplane. This backplane only has SFF-8643 (Mini-
SAS HD) connectors and is NOT compatible with the Tri-Mode RAID Modules.
Note 2: Using the cable AXXCBL700HDCV on a RAID module other than the Tri-Mode RAID modules can
damage your equipment. Only use the cables intended for those modules.
The next figures show how to connect the AXXCBL700HDCV cable.
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Figure 15. Connecting the AXXCBL700HDCV to the backplane