IBM Power Systems Feature Two LSI PCIe Gen3 SAS Adapters

Two new PCIe Gen3 SAS adapters introduce the next generation of IBM SAS adapter technology to exploit the SSD flash technology evolution, a 12GB write cache adapter and a zero write cache adapter.

Both support twice as many SSDs as earlier PCIe Gen2 SAS adapters, provide more IO/s, and support greater throughput (MB/s).

The PCIe3 12GB Cache RAID SAS Adapter (#EJ0L) supports up to 48 SSDs and up to 96 HDDs. The new adapter also effectively offers up to over six times more write cache for greater write performance than the PCIe Gen2 features 5913 and ESA3.

The PCIe3 RAID SAS Adapter (#EJ0J) is a new zero write cache SAS adapter. It uses the same high-performance PCIe Gen3 technology as feature EJ0L but is a lower-cost option than the PCIe3 12GB Cache RAID SAS Adapter while still providing better performance than delivered by the earlier PCIe Gen2 SAS adapter (#ESA1).

The PCIe3 SAS Tape Adapter (#EJ0X) supports the attachment of SAS LTO-5 and LTO-6 tape drives.

All of these PCIe Gen3 adapters are introduced on the Power 795 server.

Support for the refreshed PCIe Gen2 SAS adapter, which was originally announced for just four Power Systems models, is expanding to include more models. The PCIe2 1.8GB Cache RAID SAS Adapter (#ESA3) is now supported across most of the Power 720, 730, 740, 750, 760, 770, and 780 servers and the PowerLinux 7R2 and 7R4 servers. Feature ESA3 offers lower cost and higher energy efficiency than the feature 5913 SAS adapter, with the same performance and function.

Two new PCIe binary synchronous adapters (#EN13/#EN14) are available for clients running IBM i on Power7 technology-based servers who still need binary synchronous capability. These adapters can be used instead of features 2893 and 2894, which are being withdrawn from marketing. Non-binary synchronous functions are available for IBM i 7.1 TR5 and TR7 through the lower-cost PCIe async adapter (#5289/#5290).

Feature number EN13 is not available in Australia and New Zealand. Feature number EN14 is only available in Australia and New Zealand.

Planned availability dates

• January 31, 2014, for features 0714, 3290, 3293, EJR3, EJS1, EJS2, EJS3, EJS4, EJS5, EJS6, EN13, EN14, and ESA3.
• February 28. 2014, for features ECBB, ECBJ, ECBK, ECBL, ECBT, ECBU, ECBV, ECBW, ECBY, ECBZ, ECC0, ECC2, ECC3, ECC4, EJ0J, EJ0L, EJ0X, EJR1, EJR2, EJR4, EJR5, EJR6, EJR7, EJRA, EJRB, EJRC, EJRD, EJRE, EJRP, EJRS, EJRT, EJRU, EJRW, EJRX, EJRY, and EJRZ.