Today we will talk about the initialization and configuration process of RAID cards as well as 0-channel RAID cards and driderless Raid cards RAID card initialization and configuration process The so-called initialization is to say that after the system is powered on, the CPU executes the first instruction on the specific address of the system bus, which is the address of the motherboard BIOS chip. The BIOS chip contains the first instructions for the CPU to execute, and the CPU executes them one by one until, at a certain point, an instruction tells the CPU to address the ROM addresses of other devices on the bus (if any). That is to say, after the system is powered on, the CPU will always execute the program code in the ROM of the SCSI card on the device to initialize the card. Initialization involves checking the card model, manufacturer, and scanning all SCSI buses on the card to identify each device and display it on the display. In the process of initialization, you can enter the BIOS of the SCSI card itself as the motherboard BIOS setting, setting content including check each connected to the SCSI bus device capacity, manufacturer, status, SCSIID and LUNID and so on. 0 channel RAID card A 0-channel RAID card is also called a RAID child card. 0-channel means that there is no SCSI channel in the backend of the card. After the child card is inserted into the PCI slot of the host, it can use the SCSI cards already integrated on the motherboard or already plugged into the PCI to control their channels, so as to realize RAID. This 0-channel child card is also inserted into a PCI card, but it needs to use the motherboard for 0-channel child card specially designed logic circuit, external and SCSI controller to form a RAID card to use, but this card is physically divided into two PCI slots. On a specific PCI slot on the motherboard, there is an ICR logic circuit that intercepts the address signals sent by the CPU and the interrupt signals sent to the CPU. CPU sent here originally used to control the SCSI controller address signals, are now all redirected by the ICR circuit to RAID daughter card, including the motherboard BIOS initial loading ROM, is not loaded into the SCSI card ROM, but into the RAID daughter card ROM. RAID cards completely replaced SCSI cards for the host system. The communication between RAID card and SCSI controller, including address information and data information, needs to occupy the PCI bus, which causes some performance loss. Communication between RAID daughter cards and SCSI cards is not redirected by ICR circuits. No Drive Raid card PhotoFast has designed a Riad card that is quite innovative. The traditional Raid card uses PCIX or PCIE bus to connect to the computer, but the PhotoFast Raid card uses SATA interface to connect to the computer, that is, the Raid card connects multiple physical disks into a number of virtual disks. And connect these disks to the computer through the SATA interface, and the computer thinks that it is connected to multiple SATA physical disks. This way, the Raid card can be used by most operating systems without any driver (most operating systems come with a SATA controller driver). If you have any questions, please consult and answer them at any time. STOR Technology Limited also offers a wide range of original high-performance products, such as megaraid sas 9341 8i, lsi 9361 8i 2gb, lsi megaraid 9460 8i, and more.

In this section, we will take a look at the chips and boards commonly used in various enterprise computer systems.   RAID cards refers to a SAS or SATA controller with RAID function, such as LSI 9560 8i. HBA cards refers to a SAS or SATA controller without RAID function, such as: sas 9300 16i,the controller can be directly welded to the mainboard and connected to the CPU through the PCIE bus. You can also make a PCIE card and insert it into a PCIE slot on the mainboard. PCIE cards come in many forms.   One is standard (full-height full-length, half-height half-length, etc. At present, they are basically half-height and half-length), and the other is non-standard or customized (these cards are in various forms, but still use the PCIE protocol, but the physical interface form changes). One type of non-standard Card, called a Mezzanine Card, is designed to save space in the computer case by having slots that are vertically oriented rather than parallel to the surface of the board, so that the card sits parallel to the motherboard.   The hard disk of an enterprise computer is plugged into a backplane and wired to the SAS HBA/RAID controller. Sometimes you need to connect more hard disks, and the number of direct connection ports of the SAS controller is not enough, so you need to use a SAS Switch (the industry is not called Switch, but SAS Expander) chip to expand the number of interfaces.   This chip can be placed on the backplane, and the hard drive signal is first connected to the SAS Expander, and then connected to the SAS controller from its uplink port. If the backplane space is relatively small, can not accommodate the SAS Expander chip location, in order to consider flexibility, Microsemi company introduced SAS Expander card, which is a PCIE card, but only use the PCIE interface to power, do not transmit signals. The SAS interface is exported from the SAS Expander to the connector.   In this way, the upstream signals of the backplane and SAS controller are connected to the SAS Expander card using cables. In this way, a SAS switching network is formed, and the SAS controller can identify all hard disks.   There is another chip often used in some enterprise computers: the PCIE Switch. As the number of PCIE channels provided by the CPU is not enough, just like SAS, a Switch chip is needed to expand the number of PCIE channels. Enterprise computer systems also contain some chips, such as BMC, sound processing chip/card, GPU/ graphics card, mechanical hard disk controller chip, solid state disk controller chip and so on.

The enterprise computer system market is a relatively open, standardized/compatible, full of competition market. In this market ecosystem, there are mainly the following roles: semiconductor manufacturing factories, semiconductor circuit designers, board design manufacturers, complete machine designers, complete machine manufacturers, complete machine manufacturing designers, software developers, system integrators, end users.   The operation process of this ecology from upstream to downstream is: the semiconductor circuit designer designs the corresponding chip, and sends it to the semiconductor manufacturing factory in the form of a layout to wait for manufacturing. After the chip leaves the factory, the design and manufacturer of the board (various HBA cards, Raid cards, motherboards, etc.) purchases the chip, sends it to the board manufacturing factory for processing and welding, and leaves the factory.   Machine design Manufacturers purchase board, chassis, power supply and other assembly into the machine factory. Large and small system integrators directly face the end users, design IT system architecture and schemes for users, purchase various products, software + hardware from corresponding manufacturers, and then provide users with pre-sale evaluation and consultation, sale process management, installation, deployment, and after-sales maintenance services.   Get the most out of your computing system with expert advice and after-sales support from our team of experts at STOR. Trust us to deliver best-in-class server components and software to meet your performance and budget requirements.   With the improvement of CPU integration, there are basically only two main chips on the motherboard: CPU(For servers) and I/O bridge.