26 Intel® RAID Controller RS2WG160 Hardware User’s Guide
Supported Device Technology
The various device technologies supported by the Intel
®
RAID Controller RS2WG160 is
described in the subsections that follow.
Support for Hard Disk Drive Devices
The Intel
®
RAID Controller RS2WG160 integrates sixteen internal high-performance
SAS/SATA II ports that support SAS and enterprise-class SATA hard drives. Each port
supports both SAS and SATA devices using the SAS Serial SCSI Protocol(SSP), Serial
Management Protocol (SMP), and Serial Tunneling Protocol (STP). The SSP protocol
enables communication with other SAS devices. STP allows the SAS RAID controller to
communicate with SATA devices using the SATA commands.
SAS Expander Support
The Intel
®
RAID Controller RS2WG160 supports LSI* expanders, Vitesse SAS
expanders, and PMC expanders that are used as a component in Intel and 3rd party
enclosures. Other expanders may be supported post launch, based on market conditions
and customer requirements.
Support for Non-Hard Disk Drive Devices
Selected non-hard drive devices are supported for use with this controller. For information
on support for non-hard drive devices, see this RAID controller’s Tested Hardware and
Operating System List.
Enclosure Management Support
The Intel
®
RAID Controller RS2WG160 SES2 enclosure management in-band to
expander-based backplanes and out-of-band to direct-connect backplanes. These RAID
Controllers also support the internal SAS sideband signal SFF-8485 (SGPIO) enclosure
management interface.
RAID Functionality and Features
Hierarchy
The fundamental purpose of a RAID system is to present a usable data storage medium
(virtual drive) with some level of redundancy to a host operating system. The Intel
®
RAID firmware is based on the concept of associating physical drives in arrays and then
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