[NTLUG:Discuss] High end PCIe storage/RAID adapters

[Bryan J. Smith]

On Tue, 2005-08-02 at 23:10 -0500, Justin M. Forbes wrote:
> Err, not really... PCIe is commodity for end user desktop single CPU
> mainboards.

I was talking from the standpoint of cost, relevant to David's original
request.  I was just trying to 

But even then, PCIe is now commodity, both desktops and servers.  PCIe
x4 is already gaining popularity as a server NIC peripheral interface.
PCIe x8 is expected to be a mainstay of storage peripheral interfaces.

E.g., Broadcom/ServerWorks HT2000 has 17 channels of PCIe, but is not
capable of handling video.  It is designed to be broken into PCIe x8 and
x4 slots.  nVidia's nForce 2200 and 2050, while capable of video (and
workstation usage), is also designed for server channels with PCIe x8
and x4.

> The type of person willing to shell out the money for a high
> performance storage controller is likely running SMP.

Actually, today's commodity desktop mainboard with PCIe is more capable
of I/O than most MP systems.  The only real problem is lack of PCIe
storage and other controllers.  That was my point, relevant to David's
original request.

> PCI-X is not only common, but almost universal on any SMP boards in
> the past couple of years.

I said commodity, not common, relevant to David's original request.
I agree with you that an MCH-ICH PCI-X bridge (Intel) or HyperTransport
PCI-X tunnel (AMD) is common on MP platforms, possibly even a few
Opteron 1xx series platforms.

But I've yet to see a new (i.e., non-older/refurbished) mainboard with
PCI-X channels for under $300.  The big problem is traces (versus PCIe)
and that cost is not so commodity.

Not a big deal, was just making as assumption of what you might be
thinking.


-- 
Bryan J. Smith   b.j.smith at ieee.org   http://thebs413.blogspot.com
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