PCIe3 SAS RAID card comparison

This table compares the main features of PCI Express 3.0 (PCIe3) SAS RAID cards.

Table 1. PCIe3 SAS RAID controller cards
CCIN (custom card identification number) 57B1 57B4 57CE 57D7 57D8
Description PCIe3 12 GB Cache RAID+ SAS adapter Quad-port 6 Gb PCIe3 RAID SAS adapter Quad-port 6 Gb x8 PCIe3 12 GB Cache RAID SAS adapter Quad-port 6 Gb x8 PCIe3 x8 SAS RAID internal adapter 6 Gb PCIe3 x8 Cache SAS RAID internal adapter 6 Gb
Form factor PCIe3 x8 PCIe3 x8 PCIe3 x8 Planar-unique PCIe3 x8 Planar-unique PCIe3 x8
Physical links 16 (four mini SAS HD 4x connectors) 16 (four mini SAS HD 4x connectors) 16 (four mini SAS HD 4x connectors) 16 (internal connection to directly attached SAS drives) 16 (internal connections to directly attached SAS drives and remote adapter link) and 4 (one mini SAS HD 4x connector for external SAS attach)
Supported RAID levels RAID 5, RAID 6, RAID 103, and System mirroring RAID 5, RAID 6, RAID 103, and System mirroring RAID 5, RAID 6, RAID 103, and System mirroring RAID 5, RAID 6, RAID 10, and System mirroring RAID 5, RAID 6, RAID 10, and System mirroring
Write cache size Up to 12 GB (compressed)   Up to 12 GB (compressed)   Up to 7.2 GB (compressed)
Cache battery pack technology None (uses supercapacitor technology)   None (uses supercapacitor technology)   None (uses supercapacitor technology)
Auxiliary write cache (AWC) support No No No No No
Dual-storage IOA configuration Yes Yes Yes No Yes
Requires dual-storage IOA configuration Yes No Yes No Yes
SAS tape support No Yes1 No No No
SAS DVD support No Yes1, 2 No Yes Yes
Native 4K block device support Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
520-byte virtual disk support4 Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Note:
  1. SAS tape and SATA DVD is only supported in a single adapter configuration and cannot be mixed with SAS disk on the same adapter.
  2. SATA DVD is supported on all CCIN 57B4 adapters, except for those with initial part numbers of either 00FX843, 00MH900, 00FX846, or 00MH903.
  3. RAID 10 requires IBM® i Version 7.2, or later.
  4. For a description of possible performance considerations with VIOS and IBM i clients see Limitations and restrictions for IBM i client logical partitions
Figure 1. CCIN 57B1 PCIe3 12 GB cache RAID+ SAS adapter Quad-port 6 Gb x8
CCIN 57B1 PCIe3 12 GB cache RAID+ SAS adapter Quad-port 6 Gb x8
Figure 2. CCIN 57B4 PCIe3 RAID SAS adapter Quad-port 6 Gb x8, four units
CCIN 57B4 PCIe3 RAID SAS adapter Quad-port 6 Gb x8, four units
Figure 3. CCIN 57B4 PCIe3 RAID SAS adapter Quad-port 6 Gb x8, two units
CCIN 57B4 PCIe3 RAID SAS adapter Quad-port 6 Gb x8, two units
Figure 4. CCIN 57CE PCIe3 12 GB cache RAID SAS adapter Quad-port 6 Gb x8
CCIN 57CE PCIe3 12 GB cache RAID SAS adapter Quad-port 6 Gb x8
Figure 5. CCIN 57D7 PCIe3 x8 SAS RAID internal adapter 6 Gb
CCIN 57D7 PCIe3 x8 SAS RAID internal adapter 6 Gb
Figure 6. CCIN 57D8 PCIe3 x8 Cache SAS RAID internal adapter 6 Gb
CCIN 57D8 PCIe3 x8 Cache SAS RAID internal adapter 6 Gb