C602 Chipset and PCIe Gen3

chipsethardwarepci-expresssupermicro

I've been working recently on a Supermicro X9QR7-TF+/X9QRi-F+ server. I took the user's manual and saw two things: the chipset is Intel C602, and the expansion slots are PCIe 3.0.

According to Intel's website C602 chipset supports PCIe 2.0.

Furthermore, the user's manual states:

The C602 chipset provides extensive IO support, including the following functions and capabilities: (1) PCI-Express Rev. 2.0 support (2) PCI-Express Gen. 3 uplink supported by some SKUs

What does "uplink supported by some SKUs" mean?
So does it support Gen3 or not?

Best Answer

If SuperMicro says their implementation supports it, and Intel says it's available on some SKUs (that is, some specific versions of the chipset), then I don't see any reason to believe why that server wouldn't support PCIe 3.0

Bandwidth:

legacy PCIe 1.x - 250MB/s per lane (16x == 16 lanes)
current PCIe 2.0 - 500MB/s per lane (thus 16x PCIe 2.0 is 8GB/s)
upcoming PCIe 3.0 - 1 GB/s per lane

Physical size (from Wiki):

The width of a PCIe connector is 8.8 mm, while the height is 11.25 mm, and the length is variable. The 'minor' half of the connector is 11.65 mm in length and contains 22 pins, while the length of the 'major' half is variable. The thickness of the card going into the connector is 1.8 mm.

Lanes | Pins Total | Pins in 'major' half | Total Length | Length of 'major' half 
------+------------+----------------------+--------------+-----------------------
x1    |  36        |  14                  | 25 mm        |  7.65 mm 
x4    |  64        |  42                  | 39 mm        | 21.65 mm 
x8    |  98        |  76                  | 56 mm        | 38.65 mm 
x16   | 164        | 142                  | 89 mm        | 71.65 mm

Freebsd – How to setup PCI passthrough for the HighPoint 1144A USB 3.0 card under ESXi 5.1

Honestly, you're wayyyy outside of the norms for an ESXi server setup. I'm certain that this would not be a supported configuration in any way.

I understand that you're probably trying to get to an all-in-one (ZFS?) storage solution, but I doubt that you'll find a lot of mindshare on this type of arrangement.

The two things I can recommend are checking the VMware Hardware Compatibility List (HCL) for notes on the HighPoint USB card and also upgrading your ESXi to the current build, #914609.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

What’s the bandwidth and form factor for PCIe x1 x4 x8 and x16

Bandwidth:

Physical size (from Wiki):

Freebsd – How to setup PCI passthrough for the HighPoint 1144A USB 3.0 card under ESXi 5.1

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