Chapter 1: Introduction; Overview - LSI PCI Express to 6Gb/s Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) User Manual

PCI Express to 6Gb/s Serial Attach SCSI (SAS) Host Bus Adapters User Guide
June 2012

Chapter 1: Introduction

1.1

Overview

The LSI® PCI Express® (PCIe®) to Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) host bus adapters (HBAs) provide four, eight, or sixteen
serial ports for connection to SAS and Serial ATA (SATA) devices. Each port is capable of 1.5Gb/s, 3Gb/s, and 6Gb/s link
rates for both SAS and SATA. The design of the LSI 6Gb/s HBAs makes it easy to add SAS interfaces to any computer,
workstation, or server that has a PCIe bus.
The LSI 6Gb/s HBAs include Flash ROM for storing the firmware and BIOS, and select boards include NVSRAM for
storing nonvolatile RAID information.
The LEDs on the HBAs report a heartbeat. The Fusion-MPT™ firmware operates the LSI 6Gb/s HBA.
PCI Express Specification, Revision 2.0 compliant HBAs yield a total bandwidth of 10Gb/s for each full-duplex lane. PCI
Express Specification, Revision 3.0 compliant HBAs yield a total bandwidth of 16Gb/s for each full-duplex lane. All PCIe
software is backward compliant with previous versions of the PCI and PCI-X specifications. The LSI 6Gb/s HBAs use
either a standard PCI bracket or a low-profile, PCI-bracket type.
An LSI controller chip provides the PCIe and SAS functionality of the LSI 6Gb/s HBAs to connect SAS/SATA devices to a
computer system through the PCIe interface. The controller chip on each HBA connects directly to the PCIe bus and
generates timing and protocol in compliance with the PCIe specification. The controller chip provides the SAS
connections to the SAS and SATA devices in the computer system.
The following table shows specification information for each LSI 6Gb/s HBA model. See
6Gb/s HBA model matrix.
Table 1 LSI PCIe-to-SAS HBA Specification Details
LSI PCIe-to-SAS HBA Model
LSISAS9200-8e HBA Characteristics
LSISAS9210-8i HBA Characteristics
LSISAS9211-4i HBA Characteristics
LSISAS9211-8i HBA Characteristics
LSISAS9212-4i4e HBA Characteristics
LSISAS9200-16e HBA Characteristics
LSISAS9201-16e HBA Characteristics
LSISAS9201-16i HBA Characteristics
LSISAS9202-16e HBA Characteristics
LSISAS9205-8e HBA Characteristics
LSISAS9207-8e HBA Characteristics
LSISAS9207-8i HBA Characteristics
LSISAS9207-4i4e HBA Characteristics
LSISAS9217-8i HBA Characteristics
LSISAS9217-4i4e HBA Characteristics
LSISAS9206-16e HBA Characteristics
a. The LSISAS9202-16e HBA uses two LSISAS2008 controller chips.
b. The LSISAS9206-16e HBA uses two LSISAS2308 controller chips.
PCIe Interface Phys
Controller
x4 x8
LSISAS2008 x
LSISAS2008 x
LSISAS2004 x
LSISAS2008 x
LSISAS2008 x
LSISAS2116 x
LSISAS2116 x
LSISAS2116 x
a LSISAS2008
LSISAS2308 x
LSISAS2308 x
LSISAS2308 x
LSISAS2308 x
LSISAS2308 x
LSISAS2308 x
b LSISAS2308 x
PCI Express Specification Revision
x16 2.0, 5Gb/s
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x x
x
LSI Corporation
- 4 -
Appendix A for a complete LSI
SAS/SATA Interface Phys
3.0, 8Gb/s x4 x8
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
Introduction
Overview
x16
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x