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OCPRF100 MP Server System Technical Product Specification
Revision 1.0
91
8.1.1 Architectural 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 sup-
ported by the backplane include, but are not limited to, the following:
² Monitoring 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.
² SAF-TE intelligent agent, which acts as a proxy for “dumb” I
2
C devices (that have no
bus mastering capability) during intrachassis communications.
8.1.2 Placement Diagram
Figure 8-1: Placement Diagram Primary Side
8.1.3 Deviations 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 con-
nected to other backplanes, this signal is deemed unnecessary and is not implemented here.
8.2 Functional 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.