ZFS Advice

[Wes Morgan]

On Sat, 9 Aug 2008, Wes Morgan wrote:

> 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.

Has anyone, by chance, tried one of those SuperMicro UIO cards in a PCIe 
slot yet? If not, I'm going to give it a try unless someone is sure it 
won't work.