RAID 1

Read Racing

Hard drives spinning at 7200

RPM require 8.3 milli-seconds

for one rotation. The two drives

in a RAID 1 pair are not syn-

chronized and are at random

locations in relation to the data

requested. The worst case is

when a complete rotation is

needed to reach the data,

causing a full 8.3 ms delay. To

minimize this delay, SiI5923

directs reads to a specific

port to minimize proximity

from the address read last.

The result is to reduce the

average time for RAID 1

reads.

Serial ATA Host Interface Features

• SATA 2.6 spec. and UTD 1.3 test compliant

• Serial ATA Gen2m compliance

• eSATA and 2-meter cable support

• 3 Gbps (auto-negotiates to 1.5 Gbps)

• Compatible with PM aware and non-PM

aware hosts

• Allows multiple drives to be accessed by non-

PM aware hosts

• Pass-through mode for vendor specific and

SMART commands

Device Interface Features

• SATA 2.6 spec. and UTD 1.3 test compliant

• Serial ATA Gen2m compliance

• eSATA and 2-meter cable support

• 3 Gbps (auto-negotiates to 1.5 Gbps)

• Independent 8 KB FIFO / Port

• Power management capabilities

• Supports hot plug

• Supports ATAPI in JBOD mode & asynchro-

nous notification

Electrical Specifications

• 3.3V IO supply, 1.8V core supply

• < 1 watt (typical)

Environmental

• Operating temperature: 0ºC to 70ºC

• Operating relative humidity: 5% to 80%

• Non-operating relative humidity: 5% to 95%

Physical Specifications

• 40-pin QFN w/Epad (0.5mm pitch)

• 6mm x 6mm

Additional SteelVine features

• No driver, BIOS or software required

• User API interface through SMBus, and H/W

error log

• No drive reformatting on RAID change from

JBOD to SAFE

• Optional SteelVine Manager GUI

• Mandatory SMART commands supported to

relay RAID state

• Integrated Power on Reset Circuit

• 100% host offload engine

• SAFE later (RAID 1 one drive, and hot

upgrade)

© 2009 Silicon Image, Inc. All rights reserved. Silicon Image, the Silicon Image logo, SteelVine, the SteelVine logo, SiI and SiI5923 are trademarks or registered trademarks of Silicon Image, Inc. in the United States

and other countries. Other trademarks are property of their respective holders. Product specifications are subject to change without notice.

Part Number: SiI5923

SiI-PB-1054 rev5 9/09

Silicon Image, Inc.

1060 E. Arques Avenue

Sunnyvale, CA 94085

T 408.616.4000

F 408.830.9530

www.siliconimage.com

SiI5923 Block Diagram

Config/

LED Controller

SATA Link

and PHY

SMBus

SATA

Device Port

SATA

Device Port

SATA Layers and FIFOs

Virtualization and RAID

Mapping and Error Handling

ATA Emulation

Host FIFO

Storage Processor

SLOWER

FASTER