PERC 6 Controller Descriptions

The following list describes each type of controller:

• The PERC 6/E Adapter with two external x4 SAS ports and a transportable battery backup unit (TBBU)
• The PERC 6/i Adapter with two internal x4 SAS ports with or without a battery backup unit, depending on the system
• The PERC 6/i Integrated controller with two internal x4 SAS ports and a battery backup unit  

Each controller supports up to 64 virtual disks.

NOTE: PERC 6/i is limited by the configuration supported on the platform.

Operating System Support

The PERC 6 controllers support the following operating systems:

• Microsoft^® Windows Server^® 2003 (includes Standard, Enterprise, and Small Business Servers)
• Microsoft Windows Server 2003 DataCenter
• Microsoft Windows XP
• Microsoft Windows Vista™
• Microsoft Windows Server 2008
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Version 4 and Red Hat Enterprise Linux Version 5
• SUSE^® Linux Enterprise Server Version 9 and SUSE Linux Enterprise Server Version 10

NOTE: See driver release on www.dell.com for specific operating system service pack requirements.

Specification	PERC 6/E Adapter	PERC 6/i Adapter	PERC 6/i Integrated
RAID Levels	0, 1, 5, 6, 10, 50, 60	0, 1, 5, 6, 10, 50, 60	0, 1, 5, 6, 10, 50, 60
Enclosures per Port	Up to 3 enclosures	N/A	N/A
Ports	2 x4 external wide port	2 x4 internal wide port	2 x4 internal wide port
Processor	LSI adapter SAS RAID-on-Chip, 8-port with 1078	LSI adapter SAS RAID-on-Chip, 8-port with 1078	LSI adapter SAS RAID-on-Chip, 8-port with 1078
Battery Backup Unit	Yes, Transportable	Yesa	Yes
Cache Memory	256-MB DDR2 cache memory size Optional 512-MB DIMM	256-MB DDRII cache memory size	256-MB DDRII cache memory size
Cache Function	Write-back, write-through, adaptive read ahead, non-read ahead, read ahead	Write-back, write-through, adaptive read ahead, non-read ahead, read ahead	Write-back, write-through, adaptive read ahead, non-read ahead, read ahead
Maximum Number of Drives per Array	Up to 32 drives per array	Up to 32 drives per array	Up to 32 drives per array
Maximum Number of Arrays per Disk Group	Up to 8 arrays (in a spanned configuration)	Up to 8 arrays (in a spanned configuration)	Up to 8 arrays (in a spanned configuration)
Maximum Number of Virtual Disks per Disk Group	Up to 16 virtual disks per disk group RAID 0=16 RAID 1=16 RAID 5=16 RAID 6= 16 RAID 10=1 RAID 50=1 RAID 60=1	Up to 16 virtual disks per disk group RAID 0=16 RAID 1=16 RAID 5=16 RAID 6=16 RAID 10=1 RAID 50=1 RAID 60=1	Up to 16 virtual disks per disk group RAID 0=16 RAID 1=16 RAID 5=16 RAID 6=16 RAID 10=1 RAID 50=1 RAID 60=1
Multiple Virtual Disks per Controller	Up to 64 virtual disks per controller	Up to 64 virtual disks per controller	Up to 64 virtual disks per controller
Support for x8 PCI Express host interface	Yes	Yes	Yes
Online Capacity Expansion	Yes	Yes	Yes
Dedicated and Global Hot Spares	Yes	Yes	Yes
Hot Swap Devices Supported	Yes	Yes	Yes
Non-Disk Devices Supported	No	No	No
Mixed Capacity Physical Disks Supported	Yes	Yes	Yes
Hardware Exclusive-OR (XOR) Assistance	Yes	Yes	Yes
a The PERC 6/i adapter supports a battery backup unit (BBU) on selected systems only. See the documentation that shipped with the system for additional information.