4383 Technobox Versatile Serial ATA Controller

The Technobox 4382 / 4383 Versatile Serial ATA Controller provides four 1.5Gb per second links on a PMC front panel. Additional features are provided for via rear I/O.

The four SATA ports are accessible at the PMC front panel. Activity LEDs are provided on the front panel for each port and are located adjacent to the corresponding SATA connector. The printed circuit board mounted connector is a "latching style" version permitting use with SATA cables that have a built-in, positive-retention latch.

The board employs an Intel 31244 controller, which connects the PCI-X bus to four SATA links. PCI-X can operate up to 133 MHz under ideal conditions, but this board will also operate in lower speed 33-MHz and 66 MHz busses and in 32-bit and 64-bit modes. Both 5V and 3.3V PCI bus signaling is supported.

As customarily implemented with these designs, the 31244 controller uses an SPI bus to connect to a 128Kx8 EEPROM memory that holds a BIOS image. Unique to this product is the additional capability offered by an ALTERA Cyclone PLD that is hooked onto the SPI bus. Because of the serial nature of the SPI, the devices serviced by the ALTERA PLD must be used in low performance, interrupt-driven applications ONLY.

The ALTERA PLD is preprogrammed with logic that supports the 31244's SPI bus, an interface to an I2C controller, four UARTs (each providing RXD, TXD, CTS, and RTS), 40 bit bits of general purpose 5V tolerant Digital I/O, and a System Monitor function. A boot EEPROM automatically loads the PLD on power up. Users can access the PLD in order to fulfill custom logic requirements.