IBM EC46 58F9 4-Port USB 3.0 Server Adapter for Power 8 System 00E3903 00E2932

IBM PCIe2 4-Port USB 3.0 High-Performance Server Adapter

1. General Product Overview

The IBM EC46 (CCIN 58F9) is an enterprise-class, high-performance PCI Express Generation 2 (PCIe2) expansion adapter engineered for IBM Power Systems architectures, primarily optimizing POWER8 and POWER9 server configurations. It expands system peripheral capabilities by providing four external, high-speed Universal Serial Bus (USB) 3.0 downstream ports. This adapter is purpose-built to deliver stable, high-throughput connectivity for enterprise storage backup units, native system consoles, and multi-device management environments while maintaining strict hardware-level partitioning standards.

2. Technical Specifications

3. Interface & Connection Architecture

• External Ports: 4 x Downstream USB 3.0 Type-A receptacles.

• Backward Compatibility: Fully compliant with legacy USB 2.0 (High-Speed) and USB 1.1 (Full-Speed) protocol specifications.

• Transceiver Design: Equipped with integrated dual-speed USB transceivers to manage high-efficiency processing and low signaling latency.

• Onboard Memory: Features an integrated 2k electrically erasable and programmable read-only memory (EEPROM) configured at 256 bytes for platform microcode mapping.

4. System Hardware Compatibility & Deployment

This host bus adapter is tailored to integrate natively into IBM Power Systems backplanes, featuring seamless compatibility across major enterprise rack frameworks:

• Target Systems: IBM Power8 and Power9 Enterprise Servers (e.g., IBM Power System E850C, S822, S824, S924, etc.).

• System Backplane Support: Connects directly via regular PCIe riser expansion slots.

• Operating System Support: AIX, IBM i, and Linux for Power Systems (depending on target hardware microcode and partition configuration).