IBM 57C4 Dual-Port 6G SAS RAID Controller Technical Data Sheet

Overview

The IBM 57C4 (CCIN 57C4) is a high-performance, low-profile PCI Express generation 2 (PCIe2) x8 serial-attached SCSI (SAS) RAID adapter. It provides dual 6 Gbps mini-SAS HD ports primarily designed for enterprise-level attachment of Solid-State Drive (SSD) storage enclosures to IBM Power Systems (POWER7, POWER7+, and POWER8 enterprise architectures).

Technical Specifications

Parameter	Specification Details
CCIN / Model	57C4 (also associated with Feature Code ESA1 / ESA2)
FRU Part Number	00E7110
IBM Part Number	00E7222
Bus Interface	PCI-Express 2.0 x8 (PCIe2 x8)
Data Transfer Rate	6 Gbps per lane (6G SAS)
External Interfaces	2 x Mini-SAS HD (SFF-8644) Dual-Ports
Form Factor	Low-profile (can fit with full-height or low-profile bracket)
Supported Media	Optimized for SSDs (Solid-State Drives)
Multi-Initiator Support	High Availability (HA) Dual-System RAID & Single-System RAID

Storage & RAID Configurations

Supported RAID Levels

• AIX / Linux / VIOS: RAID 0, RAID 5, RAID 6, RAID 10

• IBM i OS: RAID 5, RAID 6

• OS-Level Mirroring: Supported via Logical Volume Manager (LVM) for AIX/Linux, or native Data Spreading/Mirroring for IBM i.

Target Deployment & Cable Attachments

• Enclosure Interconnect: Connects to standard storage drawers such as the #5887 (EXP24S), #5802, or #5803 I/O drawers.

• Supported SAS Cables: Uses SAS (X), (YO), or (AT) cables equipped with high-density (HD) mini-SAS connectors.

• Maximum Capacity: Typically configured to support a single storage drawer per adapter deployment.

Key Technical Restrictions & Characteristics

Critical Operational Constraints:

• No JBOD Support: This controller does not support raw JBOD (Just a Bunch of Disks) block-size pass-through mode; drives must be formatted to enterprise RAID sector blocks (528-byte or 4224-byte virtual disk support).

• No Legacy Device Support: This adapter does not provide interfaces for SAS Tape drives, SAS DVDs, or native optical media.

• SSD Focus: Under specific firmware configurations, Feature ESA1/ESA2 (CCIN 57C4) is strictly designated for high-throughput SSD configuration attachments to prevent bottlenecking.

Operating System Compatibility

• IBM AIX (Provides native boot support depending on the system configuration level)

• IBM i (Requires specific PTF levels for 528/4224-byte block structures)

• Linux for Power (Red Hat Enterprise Linux / SUSE Linux Enterprise Server)

• VIOS (Virtual I/O Server environment)

System Architecture Compatibility

• IBM Power7 / Power7+ Systems (via compatible I/O drawer slots)

• IBM Power8 Scale-out & Scale-up Systems (e.g., S814, S822, S824, E850, E870, E880 setups utilizing PCIe2 slots)