ZFS Advice

[Wes Morgan]

On Sat, 9 Aug 2008, Peter Schuller wrote:

>> Or, it could be that a UIO slot is specifically a PCI-Ex8 slot?  You
>> can buy risers that convert "1U PCI-E (x16) to 1 UIO and 1 PCI-E "
>
> http://www.supermicro.com/products/nfo/UIO_cards.cfm
>
> This one actually says in the clear:
>
>  "8-Lane PCI-Express interface (Supermicro UIO slot)"
>
> My guess is one of the following:
>
> * It means nothing but "PCI-E", and the UIO stuff is just marketing BS.
>
> * It means "extra PCI-E", and the UIO stuff is just marketing BS.
>
> * (Based on the grapical animation on the UIO page) They actually do have a
> special slot on their motherboard for use with their special UIO card which
> then provides a few extra PCI-E slots. The mentioning of UIO on pages
> describing standard PCI-E cards is just marketing BS resulting from the
> technically correct fact that they can be used with their UIO card.
>
> If I don't find specific information to the contrary I'll probably chance it
> and see.

As you say, it's hard to tell from the SuperMicro page. LSI has this card:

http://lsi.com/storage_home/products_home/host_bus_adapters/sas_hbas/lsisas3081er/index.html
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816118092

Which is their official card with the same chipset. The slots on both the 
SuperMicro and the LSI cards look mighty similar. The only obvious 
difference is the little right-angle thing next to the PCI-E interface. 
I'm very interested to see if it works out. If I wasn't going to be away 
for a few weeks I'd try to abuse CDW's return policy to give it a test.