Support for SAS/SATA non-RAID adapters

Barry Pederson bp at barryp.org
Wed Nov 18 19:16:03 UTC 2009


Jeremy Chadwick wrote:
>> The UIO slot itself is proprietary, but provides pinout interfaces
>> to support both PCIe 1x, 4x, and 8x, as well as PCI (32-bit and
>> 64-bit), and PCI-X (presumably 100 and 133MHz).  But ultimately it
>> depends on what board offers what pinouts through the UIO slot.
>>
>> Rather than "document it", here's how it works in the Real World(tm):
>>
>> - We need a PCIe x8 on our X7SBi for a low-profile RAID card
>> - X7SBi motherboard has a UIO slot:
>>   http://www.supermicro.com/products/motherboard/Xeon3000/3210/X7SBA.cfm
>> - UIO slot on this board supports one of the following, depending
>>   on which riser you buy:
>>   - (1) PCIe x8
>>   - (1) PCI-X 133MHz (64-bit).
>> - Scroll down to the bottom of the page and you'll find:
>>   - CSE-RR1U-ELi -- 1U PCI-E x8 Riser Card for X7SBi 
>> - Visit Supermicro's Accessories page, and select Riser Cards:
>>   http://www.supermicro.com/support/resources/Riser/riser.aspx
>> - Search for CSE-RR1U-ELi, and you find:
>>   http://www.supermicro.com/a_images/products/Accessories/CSE-RR1U-ELi.jpg
>> - Contact Supermicro distributor (whoever you got the server from, or
>>   you can contact Supermicro directly to help find a distributor for
>>   you) and get the CSE-RR1U-ELi.  Some online retailers do sell these
>>   risers too.
>> - Costs about US$11.
>> - Buy it, install it, mount the card in it, enjoy.
> 
> By the way, I'll add that the AOC-USASLP-L8i is **not** compatible with
> the UIO riser/adapter for the X7SBi.  This should be apparent just from
> examining the location of the PCIe x8 slot on the RAID card vs.  where
> the CSE-RR1U-ELi PCIe x8 slot is located.
> 
> You'll find what boards the AOC-USASLP-L8i is compatible with, UIO
> riser-wise, here:
> 
> http://www.supermicro.com/products/accessories/addon/AOC-USASLP-L8i.cfm
> 
> So in general, make sure whatever Supermicro card (RAID, Ethernet, SAS,
> SCSI, whatever) you're going with is indeed compatible with whatever
> Supermicro board you stick it in.
> 
> Best thing to do is contact Supermicro Technical Support and ask.  Their
> TS folks are better than average; I can get full specifications for ICs
> out of them, while I've never been able to achieve this with Tyan.
> Rackable (who uses Tyan mainboards) might have better luck.  :-)



Thanks for the info.  I have no doubt a Supermicro HBA will work in a 
Supermicro motherboard and chassis given the correct Supermicro risers 
or other accessories.

What I was questioning was where the OP said: "it fits into a standard 
PCIe slot and works nicely there as far as I can tell" - which to me 
sounds like you could use this HBA in a *NON-Supermicro* motherboard.

I was just wondering if that was truly the case, given how in the photos 
it looks to be arranged physically backwards from a regular PCIe card, 
and given how you mention "The UIO slot itself is proprietary".

But some more digging on Google has turned up a few mentions along the 
lines of:

"""
   This card plugs into a normal PCIe 8x slot but the
   metal mounting bracket bolted to the card is made
   for a UIO slot (which is why it's so cheap).

   All you have to do is remove the metal bracket and
   zip-tie the card to your case for mechanical support.
   Electrically it'll work fine in a PCIe x8 or x16 slot.
"""

If someone wanted to make PCIe compatible brackets for this affordable 
card, they'd probably sell a fair number to small shops or home users.

	Barry


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