Supermicro AOC-SLG3-8E2P Octaport NVMe HBA

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Ouroboros

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Jul 26, 2012
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I recently discovered that Supermicro has a PCIe PLX switch HBA card that supports 8 downstream devices via OCuLink, and that it's been out for maybe a year now.

AOC-SLG3-8E2P | Add-on Cards | Accessories | Products - Super Micro Computer, Inc.

Does anybody have any experience with this beast? Apparently the only thing google pulls up is a user on a Mac Pro forum claiming their tower got fried when trying to use it.

MP All Models - Blade SSDs - NVMe & AHCI

With 8 ports, it beats out Amfeltec's newer hexa Squid, but you can't buy it normally (Supermicro seems to be not selling this openly).
 
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Ouroboros

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Jul 26, 2012
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More googling pulls up comparable intel product that is obtainable...

AXXP3SWX08080
8-Port PCIe Gen3 x8 Switch AIC AXXP3SWX08080 Product Specifications

Which is an PCIe x8 to 8 OCulink board, in a FHHL form factor. Though the sticking point is 4 of those OCulink ports are at 90 degrees, and I can't seem to find any right angle OCulink to U.2 cables, and nobody seems to have a female-female OCulink gender changer. My google-fu is weak apparently.
 
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csp-guy

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Jun 26, 2019
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Ouroboros said:
More googling pulls up comparable intel product that is obtainable...

AXXP3SWX08080
8-Port PCIe Gen3 x8 Switch AIC AXXP3SWX08080 Product Specifications

Which is an PCIe x8 to 8 OCulink board, in a FHHL form factor. Though the sticking point is 4 of those OCulink ports are at 90 degrees, and I can't seem to find any right angle OCulink to U.2 cables, and nobody seems to have a female-female OCulink gender changer. My google-fu is weak apparently.
Click to expand...
Supermicro has oculink to U.2 cable for 15 bucks, using molex power connection.

https://store.supermicro.com/supermicro-55cm-oculink-to-u-2-pcie-with-power-cable-cbl-sast-0956.html
 
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Rand__

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Mar 6, 2014
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Wonder whether SM will do a PCIe4 part for that now that those are (soon to be) available with H12 boards...
 
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ullbeking

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Jul 28, 2017
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I'm going to install the quad-port version (AOC-SLG3-4E2P) into an SC747 chassis ( SC747TG-R1400B-SQ | 4U | Chassis | Products | Super Micro Computer, Inc. ). My research leads me to the understanding that this is going to require swapping my current backplane, which supplies the 8x hot-swap front-loading SATA/SAS drive bays (BPN-SAS-747TQ), with the BPN-SAS-747TQ-N4 backplane, which has 4x NVMe/SATA/SAS drive bays plus 4x SATA/SAS drive bays ( https://www.supermicro.com/manuals/other/BPN-SAS3-747TQ-N4.pdf ).

Has anybody tried a solution like this or used this backplane or a similar one?

I'm also looking at solutions involving mobile racks, which, I understand, already come with backplanes that allow 4x NVMe connections per 1x 5.25" slot.. I've already got 1x DVD+-RW ODD installed and I have 2x 5.25" slots spare.
 
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Ouroboros

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Jul 26, 2012
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There has been some discussion in another thread regarding using IcyDock 5.25 bay quad NVMe docks, as they use a "legacy" SFF-8643 pinout that may not play well with some cards. There was an intel AOC octoport card that apparently was not happy, though that used a PMC Sierra PCIe switch, compared to the Supermicro AOC which might be using a PLX switch. Though the IcyDock reports have not tested one of the SuperMicro OCulink to SFF-8643 cables with the OCulink end marked with a green band (which Supermicro takes pains to point out for use with their backplanes...)
 
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csp-guy

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Jun 26, 2019
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I would like to now the max. Performance of these cards. For example with 8x optane 900p drive 2500:2000 read:write / drive performance. I think PCI-e 3.0 bus bandwidth too thin to get all available bandwidth of drives.
 
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Ouroboros

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Jul 26, 2012
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I got one of these via ebay (they've started showing up there recently), but I'm unable to boot at all with it plugged into the x16 slot in a test system (Fujitsu Primergy TX100 S3), which only has PCIe 2.0 slots. Just get a single beep every 2 seconds with no post codes. Tried using the cut open x4 slot, as well as a riser adapter in the remaining x8 slot, but no joy. Some sort of compatibility issue (PCIe 3.0 should run in a 2.0 slot, but maybe SMBus conflict?) or DOA (looks like it came in the original packaging so I don't think so...)? Can't tell really. Need to scrounge another machine to see if it's just that system, but a full on blocking boot fail by adding a PCIe card is kinda harsh in this day and age.

Update:
Was able to stuff it into a TX1310 in its PCIe 3.0 x16 slot and it booted alright, but it appears this does NOT use a PLX chip, but a chip by PMC-Sierra. Don't have a U.2 drive and cable yet to test data functionality, but I am detecting 9 PMC-Sierra management endpoints (but that's also coming up as PCI bridges). This may have similar consequences for the Intel AXP3SWX08080 since that also seems to use a PMC-Sierra PCIe switch chip
 
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JoshDi

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Jun 13, 2019
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Does anyone use this board (AOC-SLG3-8E2P) with Oculink to U.2 cables (no backplane)?

I am looking to use this with my X11-SPM-TF Supermicro board, Intel VROC, and Intel DC P3520 drives.
 
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JoshDi

Active Member
Jun 13, 2019
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JoshDi said:
Does anyone use this board (AOC-SLG3-8E2P) with Oculink to U.2 cables (no backplane)?

I am looking to use this with my X11-SPM-TF Supermicro board, Intel VROC, and Intel DC P3520 drives.
Click to expand...
I received the board (AOC-SLG3-8E2P) and it works fine with the supermicro Oculink to U.2 cables without a backplane. I am also using it with an Intel VROC Key. Supermicro informed me that it will only work in slot 4 on my board - not slot 6.
 
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