PCIe3 x8 NVMe 1.6 TB SSD NVMe Flash Adapter (FC EC5A, EC5B, EC5G, EC6U, and EC6V; CCIN 58FC)

Learn about the specifications and operating system requirements for feature code (FC) EC5A, EC5B, EC5G, EC6U, and EC6V adapters.

Overview

FC EC5A, EC5B, EC5G, EC6U, and EC6V are all the same adapters with different feature codes. FC EC5A, EC5G, and EC6U are low-profile adapters. FC EC5B and EC6V are full-height adapters. FC EC5A, EC5B, and EC5G are supported on AIX® or Linux® operating systems. FC EC6U and EC6V are supported on IBM® i operating system.

The PCIe3 x8 NVMe 1.6 TB SSD NVMe adapter is a Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCIe) generation 3 (Gen3) x8 adapter. The adapter can be used in either a x8 or x16 PCIe (Gen3) slot in the system and uses Non-Volatile Memory Express (NVMe). NVMe is a high-performance software interface that can read or write flash memory. Compared to a Serial-attached SCSI (SAS) or Serial Advanced Technology Attachment (SATA) solid-state drive (SSD), the NVMe Flash adapter provides more read or write, input or output operations per second (IOPS) and larger throughput (GB/sec). The type of workload has a great impact on the maximum write capacity. If a high percentage of more sequentially oriented write operations are performed instead of random write operations, the maximum write capacity will be large. To extend the life of the NVMe device, the application that is using the NVMe device must convert small random write operations to larger sequential write operations. The write operations that exceed the maximum write capacity of the adapter continues to operate for some time but the performance will be slow. The life of the device is not affected depending on whether the application uses sequential oriented write operations or random read operations from the device. A Predictive Failure Analysis message is displayed when the adapter that is enabled by the system administrator must be replaced. To monitor the percentage usage of the adapter, see Checking the amount of remaining life in NVMe devices. If the adapter exceeds the maximum write capability, the adapter's replacement is not covered under IBM warranty or maintenance. This adapter has protection against single Flash channel failures. To prevent the entire adapter from failing, software RAID should be used. For high-value applications where the content in the adapter must be protected, additional NVMe Flash adapters with OS mirroring or software Redundant Array of Independent Disks (RAID) are recommended. This adapter is not supported in the PCIe Gen3 I/O drawer.

Figure 1. PCIe3 x8 NVMe 1.6 TB SSD NVMe Flash Adapter
PCIe3 x8 NVMe 1.6 TB SSD NVMe Flash Adapter

Specifications

Item
Description
Adapter FRU number
01DH570.
I/O bus architecture
PCIe3 x8.
Slot requirement
For details about slot priorities, maximums, and placement rules, see PCIe adapter placement rules and slot priorities and select the system you are working on.
Voltage
3.3 V, 12 V.
Form factor
Short, low-profile (FC EC5A, EC5G, and EC6U).
Short, with full-height tail stock (FC EC5B and EC6V).
Maximum number
For details about the maximum number of adapters that are supported, see Adapter placement rules and slot priorities and select the system you are working on.
Attributes provided
1.6 TB of low latency flash memory.
Non-Volatile Write Buffer.
Hot Plug Capable.

Operating system or partition requirements

If you are installing a new feature, ensure that you have the software that is required to support the new feature and you must determine any prerequisites that must be met for this feature and the attached devices. For information about operating system and partition requirements, see one of the following topics: