Pcie (Nvme) Support; Common Refclk Support - Broadcom 95 Series User Manual

Broadcom 95xx User Guide

PCIe (NVMe) Support

The following table shows how many NVMe drives or Broadcom PEX88000-series switches can directly attach to each
adapter. The HBA 9500-16e and HBA 9500-8e adapters do not support direct attach to NVMe drives. The expected
topology for the HBA 9500-16e and HBA 9500-8e adapters is a typical JBOF scenario that uses a switch to connect the
NVMe drives.
The adapters do not support switch connections wider than x4 and one level deep.
Table 4: NVMe Devices or PCIe Switch Direct-Attach Options Supported for Each Adapter
Adapter x4 NVMe Drives
9560-16i
9560-8i
9580-8i8e
9500-16i
9500-8i
9500-16e
9500-8e
The tri-mode device interface contains a SAS core and a PCIe device bridge (PDB). The PDB enables the PCIe (NVMe)
storage interface connections, and each PDB can support direct connect to NVMe devices or to x4 PCIe switches. The
storage interface is comprised of 16 phys or 8 phys depending on the controller. One PDB manages PHY 0 to PHY 7,
and a second PDB manages PHY 8 to PHY 15. The PDBs cannot communicate with each other. This means that a PCIe
port of greater than one lane must attach exclusively to phys all managed by the same PDB and must be comprised of
adjacent lanes.
The following table indicates how the connectors map to the PDB for each adapter. Card layout figures in
MegaRAID and HBA Tri-Mode Storage Adapter Characteristics
Table 5: Adapter Lanes-to-PDB Core Associations
Adapter
9560-16i
9560-8i
9580-8i8e
9500-16i
9500-8i
9500-16e
9500-8e

Common REFCLK Support

The adapter uses x8 SFF-8654 (SlimSAS) connectors. Each connector is divided into two quadrants. For connections that
require a common REFCLK, one REFCLK is supplied for each quadrant. For x4 NVMe or PCIe switch connections, the
REFCLK sourced by each quadrant directly clocks each attached x4 PCIe connection.
Broadcom
x2 NVMe Drives
4 8
2 4
2 4
4 8
2 4
0 0
0 0
Connector 0 Connector 1
PDB 0
PDB 0
PDB 1
PDB 0
PDB 0
PDB 0
PDB 0
®
Broadcom
x1 NVMe Drives
16
8
8
16
8
0
0
show the connector designations for each adapter.
Connector 2
PDB 1 N/A
N/A N/A
PDB 0 PDB 0
PDB 1 N/A
N/A N/A
PDB 0 PDB 1
PDB 0 N/A
®
95xx PCIe 4.0 MegaRAID and HBA Tri-Mode Storage Adapters
x4 Switch
4
2
4
4
2
4
2
Connector 3
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
PDB 1
N/A
95xx-MR-HBA-Tri-Mode-UG104
Broadcom
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