Tim <tim <at> tcsac.net> writes: > > So we're still stuck the same place we were a year ago. No high port > count pci-E compatible non-raid sata cards. You'd think with all the > demand SOMEONE would've stepped up to the plate by now. Marvell, cmon ;)
Here is a 6-port SATA PCI-Express x1 controller for $70: [1]. I don't know who makes this card, but from the picture it is apparently based on a SiI3114 chip behind a PCI-E to PCI bridge. I also don't know how they get 6 ports total when this chip is known to only provide 4 ports. Downsides: SATA 1.5 Gbps only; 4 of the ports are external (eSATA cables required); and don't expect to break throughput records because the bottleneck will be the internal PCI bus (33 MHz or 66 MHz: 133 or 266 MB/s theoretical hence 100 or 200 MB/s practical peak throughput shared between the 6 drives). I also know Lycom, who is selling a 4-port PCI-E x8 card based on the Silicon Image SiI3124 chip and a PCI-E to PCI-X bridge [2]. I am unable to find a vendor for this card though. I heard about Lycom through the vendor list on sata-io.org. Regarding Marvell, their website is completely useless as they provide almost no tech info regarding their SATA products, but according to a wikipedia article [3] they have three PCI-E to SATA 3.0 Gbps host controllers: o 88SE6141: 4-port (AHCI ?) o 88SE6145: 4-port (AHCI according to the Linux driver source code) o 88SX7042: 4-port (non-AHCI) The 6141 and 6145 appear to be mostly used as onboard SATA controllers according to [3]. The 7042 can be found on some Adaptec and Highpoint cards according to [4], but they are probably expensive and come with this thing called "hardware RAID" that most of us don't need :) Overall, like you I am frustrated by the lack of non-RAID inexpensive native PCI-E SATA controllers. -marc [1] http://cooldrives.com/ss42chesrapc.html [2] http://www.lycom.com.tw/PE124R5.htm [3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Marvell_Technology_Group_chipsets [4] http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux-2.6.git;a=blob;f=drivers/ata/sata_mv.c;hb=HEAD _______________________________________________ zfs-discuss mailing list zfs-discuss@opensolaris.org http://mail.opensolaris.org/mailman/listinfo/zfs-discuss
