OCPRF100 MP Server System Technical Product Specification

Revision 1.0

8.1.1Architectural Overview

The backplane is an integral part of the OCPRF100 MP Server System. It is designed to provide a cost effective ease of power-on (hot-swap) drive replacement, provide easy RAID integration over a wide range of RAID controller products, and be vendor independent.

The single feature that simplifies RAID integration is the addition of an onboard SCSI target whose command set allows vendor independent controller management and monitoring for associated drive functions such as drive insertion and removal, light indicators, and drive power control. Its use simplifies cable management and eliminates errors caused by the possibility of incorrect correlation of several cables.

The backplane performs the tasks associated with hot-swappable SCSI drives, and enclosure (chassis) monitoring and management, as specified in the SAF-TE Specification. The tasks supported by the backplane include, but are not limited to, the following:

²Monitoring the SCSI bus for enclosure services messages, and acting on them appro- priately. Examples of such messages include: activate a drive fault indicator, power down a drive which has failed, and report backplane temperature.

²SAF-TE intelligent agent, which acts as a proxy for “dumb” I2C devices (that have no bus mastering capability) during intrachassis communications.

8.1.2Placement Diagram

Figure 8-1: Placement Diagram Primary Side

8.1.3Deviations from SAF-TE Specification

The SAF-TE specification requires the use of a PAIR signal. The intended use of this signal is to allow inter-backplane processor communication. Since this design is not intended to be connected to other backplanes, this signal is deemed unnecessary and is not implemented here.

8.2Functional Description

This section defines the architecture of the backplane, including descriptions of functional blocks and how they operate. Figure 8-2: Functional Block Diagram shows the functional blocks on the SCSI channel of the backplane. An overview of each block follows.

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