RAID5 Card Q&A

It needs Port Multiplier and multiple Drives. When SATA Port Multiplier and multiple Drives are installed on 2Port SATA II Host card, the setting of Raid 0, 1, 10, 5 and JBOD will appear on the screen accordingly and automatically.

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Concatenated also known as Big Drive, The Concatenated combines multiple disks or multiple segments of disks into a single large disk. It does not provide any data protection or performance improvement but can be useful for utilizing leftover space on all disks.

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How to get the PDF file of complete RAID5 manual for RAID5 Host Adapter?

Please find the SATARAID5-UserGuide_v1.40.pdf under the GUI folder of Driver CD on your card package or get a email copy by contact Support@lycom.com.tw or sales@lycom.com.tw.

Yes, it works, even mixed with different LyCOM model# of RAID5 card in one server system. RAID5 GUI can manage each RAID5 card individually but NO cross Raid5 setting is provided.

No, only one RAID GUI or RAID5 GUI can exist in PC system, so LyCOM don’t recommend to use the mixed RAID and RAID5 cards in one system. If you decide to sacrifice the RAID GUI and use the RAID5 GUI only in system, you must remove the existing RAID GUI from your PC system first before RAID5 Card hardware installation, otherwise the system will hang up. After RAID5 card, RAID5 driver and RAID5 GUI be successfully installed, RAID5 GUI can manage the activities of RAID5 card only, no RAID card activity.

Yes, it works.

You may also contact Support@lycom.com.tw and try to update the BIOS of Raid5 card.

SATA II, eSATA, SATA Q&A

In LyCOM, SATAII stands for 2nd Generation Serial ATA, which must support Port Multiplier and NCQ, and eSATA is the external SATA for external connection. So,

1. SATA-150 = Standard Internal SATA with 1.5Gbps (or 150MBps) transfer rate.

2. eSATA-150 = External SATA with 1.5Gbps (or 150MBps) transfer rate.

3. SATA II – 3Gbps = 2nd Generation Internal SATA with 3Gbps (or 300MBps) transfer rate, which support Port Multiplier and NCQ.

4. SATA II –150 = 2nd Generation Internal SATA with 1.5Gbps (or 150MBps) transfer rate, which support Port Multiplier and NCQ.

5. eSATA II – 3Gbps = 2nd Generation External SATA with 3Gbps (or 300MBps) transfer rate, which support Port Multiplier and NCQ.

 As below connector pictures,

1. SATA connector is the standard “L-shape” connector for internal use, which is used in SATA drives and Host adapter internal port.

2. eSATA connector is the “I-type” connector with durable metal cover for external use and frequently plug-in, which is used in external device enclosure and Host adapter external port.

3. LyCOM enhanced SATA connector is a “L-shape” connector with durable metal cover for external & Internal use and frequently plug-in, which is used in external device Enclosure, Host adapter internal port and Host adapter external port. 

SATA

eSATA

LyCOM Enhanced SATA

A3:

Compare to USB2.0 transfer rate 480 Mbps and 1394a 400 Mbps, SATA 1500 Mbps and 3Gbps are exactly high speed and high frequency products. LyCOM R&D must guarantee the impedance and Eye–Patterns quality in all our products, so LyCOM not only use 4-layer or 6-layer PCB, and always implement the best placement, best trace width and best trace length in our SATA products

Q4:

How to enjoy the high capacity SATA hard drive on my current PC, that has IDE port only and no SATA port?

A4:

1. Buy LyCOM ST-106 (Mini Vertical BridgeBoard for SATA Device to IDE MotherBoard) and attach it to the 22Pin SATA connector on the backside of SATA Hard Drive. ST-106 will change the SATA drive to have IDE interface and ready for IDE cable connection.

2. Buy any LyCOM SATA PCI Host card and install it into a motherboard free PCI slot

Q5:

How to add more IDE devices (like Optical Drive) on my PC system, that has free SATA Ports but no extra IDE Port?

A5:

1. Buy LyCOM ST-101L (Mini Vertical Bridge Board for IDE Device to SATA MotherBoard) and attach it to the 40Pin IDE connector on the backside of IDE Device. ST-101L will convert the IDE drive to SATA interface for SATA cable connection.

2. Buy LyCOM 2Ports ST-135, install it into motherboard free slot, connect motherboard free SATA to ST-135 SATA Port, connect included IDE cable with ST-135 IDE Port and IDE device.

3. Buy LyCOM IDE PCI-e (PE-111R) or PCI (ST-305, ST-306) Host card and install it into motherboard free PCI-e or PCI slot.

Q6:

Why my motherboard SATA port can’t recognize an IDE DVD ROM with ST-101L (the BridgeBoard for IDE Device to SATA MotherBoard)?

A6:

1. On SATA, IDE DVD ROM must be set to Master Mode, please Jumper DVD ROM to Master mode and try again.

2. If still no working, remove J2 Jumper on ST-101L and let J2 open at NC mode.

3. If still no working, please contact MotherBoard maker and have the latest MotherBoard BIOS updated and new SATA software driver.

Q7:

Can I use 1st Generation SATA Host Card to SATA Port Multiplier and enjoy the Multiple Drives in one SATA channel?

A7:

No, only SATA II Host Adapter supports Port Multiplier function and 1st Generation SATA doesn’t support. LyCOM eSATA II Host Adapters on PCI (ST-125, ST-125NR), PCI-X (64-105e), PCI-e (PE-100N, PE-105N, PE-102, PE-102R5), CardBus (PC-112, PC-112R5), ExpressCard (EK-102, EK-102R5, EK-202) are the best Hosts for Port Multiplier Bridge Board (ST-126DA, ST-126RM) or MultiBay Storage System (MB-1e4S).

Q8:

A8:

Only GUI supports Port Multiplier and BIOS doesn’t, so SATA II BIOS just recognizes one HDD at Port1. After OS booting, you can create and manage All disks behind Port Multiplier.

Q9:

When I plug a new SATA drive to LyCOM SATA Host Adapter, the PC freezes.

A9:

It sounds the PC is trying to recognize the unknown SATA device and then PC system is waiting for a long time-out acknowledgement from device. Please contact Support@lycom.com.tw or sales@lycom.com.tw to have the BIOS update utility & latest SATA BIOS and upgrade your adapter BIOS then.

USB and FireWire Q&A

A1:

NEC is the world’s first one to have USB2.0 chipset on year 2000 and same story to TI on first FireWire400 and FireWire800 chipset. LyCOM customers always request for the reliable and best compatible and long life cycle supported products, so LyCOM R&D just use NEC USB2.0 chipset and Texas Instrument FireWire chipset after our fully complete chipset evaluation. Even CardBus small space, LyCOM insists to use NEC and TI discrete chipset on PC-103 (1394+USB Combo CardBus).

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Why Serial ATA    

Serial ATA (SATA), an evolutionary high-performance interface for storage devices to replace the Parallel ATA, is used to connect ATA and ATAPI devices, including CDs, DVDs, tapes devices, high capacity removeable devices, zip drives, and CD-RWs.  

Compare with parallel ATA interface, Serial ATA addresses some shortcomings and provides a scalable platform to support several generations of future storage devices.  

Serial ATA is a drop-in solution that is compatible with today's software, which runs on the new architecture without modification. It provides for systems which are easier to design, with cables that are simple to route and install, smaller cable connectors, improve silicon design, and lower voltages which alleviate current design requirements in Parallel ATA.

Lower Voltage. Parallel ATA requires integrated circuits to tolerate input signals as high as 5 volts. Serial ATA reduces the signaling voltages to approximately 250 millivolts (¼ volt).

Pin Efficiency. The parallel ATA interface has 26 signal pins going into the interface chip. Serial ATA uses only 4 signal pins, improving the pin efficiency and accommodating a highly integrated chip implementation.

Improved Cable and Connector Plant. The parallel ATA cable and connector plant is a bulky cable made up of unwieldy 80 conductor ribbon cables and 40 pin header connectors. Serial ATA uses a much smaller serial cable similar in appearance to modern telephone cables. Eliminating the cable nest improves the system’s airflow and cooling, and offers greater freedom in chassis design.

Master-Slave Interaction. With today’s parallel ATA implementation, pairs of devices share a common cable in a master-slave relationship. This interaction between devices results in the available bandwidth being shared between the devices. Additionally, since the devices on the cable interact, they must be jointly qualified, resulting in the substantial expansion of the system integrators’ qualification matrix in order to comprehend all possible combinations of devices. Serial ATA is a point-to-point interface where each device is directly connected to the host via a dedicated link. Each device, therefore, has the entire interface bandwidth dedicated to it, and there is no interaction between devices. This means software can be streamlined, eliminating the overhead associated with coordinating accesses between the master and slave device sharing the same cable. 

Serial ATA is compatible at the register level with parallel ATA. This means Serial ATA requires no changes to existing software and operating systems in order to function, and it provides backward compatibility with existing operating environments. It has already been demonstrated to run with Microsoft Windows* 98, Microsoft Windows 2000, and Linux operating systems without the need for any special software drivers.