@8F97.ADF IBM SSA RAID Adapter
SA33-3270-02 Micro Channel SSA RAID Adapters Technical Reference
SA33-3272-02 SSA Adapters User’s Guide and Maintenance Information
SC23-1782-00 IBM Enhanced SSA 4-Port Adapter User's Guide and Reference
Note: This page describes the different IBM
pSeries SSA adapters.
Please refer to the SSA
Adapter Documentation page on IBM's web site for authoritative information.
SSA Adapter Information Table
FC |
ID |
FRU |
Name |
Bus |
Max / loop |
Name |
6214 |
4-D |
|
SSA Adapter |
MCA |
2 |
Mayflower |
6215 |
4-N |
|
SSA Enhanced RAID Adapter Multi-Initiator RAID/EL Adapter |
PCI |
4 (R-5) 8 (R-0) |
Campbell 2 |
6216 |
4-G |
89H5667 |
SSA Enhanced Adapter |
MCA |
8 |
Mayflower 2 |
6217 |
4-I |
96H9883 |
SSA 4-Port RAID Adapter |
MCA |
1 |
Sarratoga |
6218 |
4-J |
|
SSA RAID Adapter |
PCI |
1 |
Beaulieu |
6219 |
4-M |
|
SSA Enhanced RAID Adapter Multi-Initiator RAID/EL Adapter |
MCA |
4 (R-5) 8 (R-0) |
Fremont |
6225 |
4-P |
|
Advanced SerialRAID Adapter |
PCI |
2 (R-5) 8 (R-0) |
Santa Cruz |
6230 |
4-P |
|
Advanced SerialRAID Plus Adapter |
PCI |
2 (R-5) 8 (R-0) |
Santa Cruz |
Note: All MCA
adapters use devices.mca.8f97.*,
does this mean that they are all similar?
Notes: The 6215 and
6219 adapters
appear to be essentially identical other than the fact
that the 6215 is
PCI and the 6219 is MCA (they both take the same
microcode and appear to
have identical functionality).
Availability of TMSSA support may depend on what
version of microcode
is on the adapter (the 6215 and 6219 adapters require at
least level 1801).
The Advanced SerialRAID Adapters (6225 and 6230) are
capable of 40MB/sec
per direction per loop. The other adapters are capable
of 20MB/sec per
direction per loop.
Many of the values in the above table assume that the
adapter has sufficiently
current microcode.
The Advanced
SerialRAID
Plus Adapter Planning Guide states:
The Advanced SerialRAID Plus Adapter has code above
level 7600.
The Advanced SerialRAID Adapter had code below 7600
and that adapter can
be converted to support the additional functions by
downloading code above
level 7600.
i.e. the adapters are identical if they have
sufficiently recent microcode.
This would seem to explain why the 6225 and the 6230
both are type 4-P.
J2, J6 - Internal SSA Connectors
The adapter card has 2 internal SSA connectors and 4 external
connectors. This allows one of the 2 dual-port SSA nodes to be connected
either internally or externally to the system unit. The internal connectors
are 2 x 3 pin SSA connectors.
Ports B1 and B2 have both internal and external
connectors. The marking also indicates that ports A1 and A2 are paired,
that is, they are connected to the same SSA loop interface chip.
Similarly, ports B1 and B2 are paired.
+5 V power is available on the connector to power an external optical
extender.
SSA Port Header Pinouts
Thanks to David Ress for finding this after I lost the
reference... Pin 1 is marked on the outside of the header on the PCB.

1 Line Out + 6 Line Out -
2 Ground 5 Ground
3 Line In - 4 Line In +
J14 Exploration
Dave Ress tips back his miner's helmet and says:
I checked the SSA adapter I have, and it has the solder
pads for a 6-pin port, but that is all. Looking at the A side and numbering
the solder pads from left to right, I find:
Pad 1 - GND
Pad 2 - Pin 5 of U7
Pad 3 - Pin 4 of U7
Pad 4 - Pin 3 of U7
Pad 5 - Pin 6 of U7
Pad 6 - +5 V
Looking at: SCC2691AC1A28
we learn that U7 is a UART, so the PS/2 port is really a serial port as
the pins of U7 are mapped as:
Pin 3 - RxD
Pin 4 - TxD
Pin 5 - MPO => multi-purpose output (clock pulse?)
Pin 6 - MPI => multi-purpose input (clock pulse?)
Beyond that, I have no idea where the U7 chip interfaces to. I tried
to map D0-7, but no luck there.
SSA Mini-Ports
SSA connectors are 9-pin high-density shielded ITT-Canon
Micro MDSM connectors
Pin Assignment Pin Assignment
1 Ground
6 Line Out +
2 Line Out -
7 No connection
3 Ground
8 +5 V
4 Line In -
9 Line In +
5 Ground
The serial ports conform to SSA, Level 1. Each port operates at 20MB/sec
full duplex, using point-to-point copper cables up to 25 meters long.
SSA Drive Connectors
David Ress started diddling and said:
I took one of my SSA drives carriers apart this morning. It originally
went into a 7133.
I did this for two reasons: first, I have always wondered how to connect
an internal SSA drive up to the B1 and B2 internal connectors. Second,
if the SSA adapter has just a six pin ribbon connector, I was curious what
the physical connector looked like on the SSA drive.
In looking at the SSA drive carrier, the first thought was "what in
the world?", as the SSA drive carrier has a EURO 72-Pin style connector
(think mini-Nubus). 72 pin connector to support a 6 pin ribbon connector?
But, as it turns out, 32 of the pins are no-connect.
Further disassembling the SSA drive carrier revealed a IBM DFHC 4.5GB
drive, made in 1996. Note: the SSA drive carrier has a label that
says assembled on 23 Feb 2000, I guess IBM had many units left over.
In removing the DFHC I learned that the connector is very unusual, unlike
anything I have seen before. I guess I was hoping to see a SCSI-2 connector
as SSA is a superset of the SCSI-2 protocol, but that was very much wishful
thinking on my part.
SSA Unitized Connector
SSA Unitized Connector
SSA Port on Unitized Connector
Option Port on Unitized Connector
Power Port on Unitized Connector
Carrier connector
4 x 32 female contact, BERG HPC connector, part number 99F9429.
Ed. There seems to be different models with
different carrier interfaces (at least for the 4-G adapter). YMMV.

Fibre-Optic Extender
A fibre-optic extender is available to connect an industry-standard
fiber optic cable within an SSA loop when that loop is used with a 7133
SSA Disk Subsystem. With a fibre-optic extender attached at each node,
the distance between them can be up to 2.4 km. The maximum sustainable
data-transfer rate in a single direction on an SSA link is approximately
18 MB/s. Extending the link with a fiber optic cable results in no degradation
of this data-transfer rate for lengths up to 200 meters, and a gradual
reduction in the achievable data-transfer rate beyond this distance. This
data-transfer rate reduction generally has no effect on SSA subsystem performance
for most applications.
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