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Chapter 1 – Introduction
Serial ATA Compatible
ACS-8990 is designed for use with the latest generation of high performance HDDs. The
serial ATA disk interface offers 150 MByte/s data transfer, the capacity for hot-plugging, and
compatibility with parallel ATA standards. Serial ATA cables can reach up to 1 meter (2.5 times
the maximum length of IDE ribbon cables) and are far narrower than ribbon cables. This leads
to improved ventilation inside system cases and wider options for disk placement. For further
details of Serial ATA, turn to Appendix C.
Three Operating Modes
ACS-8990 operates in three modes: Self-Diagnostic Mode, Configuration Mode and
Operation Mode.
Self-Diagnostic Mode
To ensure flawless operation, ACS-8990 has a built-in self-diagnostic utility. Self-diagnostic
Mode is entered automatically upon power up, or after the ACS-8990 has been reset. In this
mode, all components are tested, and any potential problems are reported. Once the tests are
complete, ACS-8990 switches automatically to Operation Mode.
Self-Diagnostic Mode runs three major tests. The first diagnostic test covers the CPU and
supporting core logic chips, the internal bus, memory, SCSI controller, Serial ATA controllers,
and RS-232 controllers. The second diagnostic test checks for the presence of disks on each
individual disk channel and the functionality of each disk found. The final diagnostic test
checks RAID functionality.
Configuration Mode
Configuration Mode enables the RAID administrator to configure and modify the settings of
ACS-8990 and fine-tune the configuration. Configuration Mode is entered from Operation
Mode:
1. When the Enter button on the control panel is pressed, or:
2. When the Monitor Utility is invoked from the remote terminal.
Full details on changing configurations are given in Chapter 5
ACS-8990 should be off-line and not being accessed by any application when
Configuration Mode is run.
ACS-8990 will automatically switch from Configuration Mode to Operation
Mode after 3 minutes if no buttons are pressed on the controller box control
panel and no action is taken on the Monitor Utility
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