Extending the use of Intel Merrifield to Desktop?

[cbn]

Two ideas I thought about:

1. Intel Merrifield as a small inexpensive desktop/set-top box or HDMI stick:

2. Intel Merrifield with a different discrete I/O chip (ie, combo chip) than is used for mobile. This desktop I/O chip could have 4 to 6 SATA (or even more in the application of a NAS or inexpensive cold storage PC based JBOD back-up server)

The second option I really am a firm believer at the moment because the current low power cpu boards (Intel Bay Trail-D, Kabini, AM1) don't come with more than two native SATA ports.

 

[NTMBK]

If you want a server, buy a server SoC. Avoton or Seattle. Adding tons of unused native SATA to mobile SOCs just drives up cost and power consumption.

 

[Shivansps]

I was ignored when i asked, but SATA controllers on BT and Kabini does support port multipliers? 1-to-5 multipliers are not expensive.

 

[monstercameron]

I was ignored when i asked, but SATA controllers on BT and Kabini does support port multipliers? 1-to-5 multipliers are not expensive.

yep spinning drives shouldnt even come close to to filling sata3 and there are plenty of software raid solutions out there. ZFS anyone - i don't know the intricacies of zfs just pointing it out as a possible solution.

 

[Shivansps]

There a lot of ways, generally one does not need a lot of speed on a home NAS, and especially not reading/writting to multiple HDD at the same time.
What i mean with this, is that even $4 usb 2.0 to sata bridge are a option.

But its also important to know if port multipliers are supported on Kabini and/or BT...

those things are cheap, they are JMB381 so only Sata 2.

 

[cbn]

If you want a server, buy a server SoC. Avoton or Seattle.

Here are four complaints I have regarding Avoton:

1. The Supermicro and Asrock C2750 and C2550 boards are really expensive (Example: $280 for the Asrock C2550D4I and $410 for the Asrock C2750D4I boards on Newegg)

2. There are no Avoton Consumer boards (ie, management features removed, but ECC capability still enabled) at a lower cost on the market.

3. Avoton C2350 (the $43 dual core Avoton--> http://ark.intel.com/products/77977/Intel-Atom-Processor-C2350-1M-Cache-1_70-GHz) for whatever reason only comes with two native SATA. (I can only hope Intel remedies this situation.)

4. Lack of usb 3.0

EDIT: Maybe an ideal situation for me (at this time) would be a consumer board with Avoton C2550. Keep the ECC RAM capability and add in audio and a third party usb 3.0 IC. However, with this mentioned I would like to still see this category dramatically improve.

 

[cbn]

I was ignored when i asked, but SATA controllers on BT and Kabini does support port multipliers? 1-to-5 multipliers are not expensive.

Thank you for the suggestion.

I'm still researching port multipliers to find out how compatible they are with various hardware and NAS OSes. (particularly unRAID)

With that mentioned, I would feel much more comfortable with a higher amount of native SATA ports.

P.S. I am quite surprised to find out even the C226 chipset only supports six SATA (although they are all 6 Gbps). However, I was glad to find out C602 and C604 (on LGA 2011) support 10 native SATA (two of which are 6 Gbps). C606 and C608 (also LGA 2011) support 14 native SATA (two of which are 6 Gbps). Too bad the LGA 2011 cpus and boards are so pricey.

 

[Shivansps]

As for speed, i think a SATA 2 will be able to run 2 HDDs at full speed, and close to 3, so unless you try to use 5 disks at the same time you whould be ok.

But its important to know if the chipset support multipliers, if not they not gona work.

 

[coercitiv]

I was ignored when i asked, but SATA controllers on BT and Kabini does support port multipliers? 1-to-5 multipliers are not expensive.

Got some info for Kabini, and the answer is no with a chance of maybe. There is driver support for multipliers, but it is turned off in the AMD drivers and it may also need BIOS support.

The following info is taken from the AMD driver Readme file

Implementation Notes
The amdsata driver package provides Port Multiplier support, but because of Port Multiplier HW inconsistency and boot timing negative impact it is enabled on eSATA ports only.
This makes impossible a scenario when OS needs to be installed using devices behind a Port Multiplier; to enable OS installation using devices behind a Port Multiplier, Port Multiplier support needs to be enabled in the inf file and OS(Win8) distribution media needs to be updated w/ the Port Multiplier support enabled driver; BIOS support for Port Multiplier is required as well.

Supported chipsets
SB7xx family, SB8xx family, Hudson-1/2/3/4 family, SB9xx family, SP5100, Yangtze, Mullins, Avalon