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https://www.broadcom.com/products/storage/host-bus-adapters/sas-nvme-9400-16i
Apparently, this is one of Broadcom's upcoming storage products and it's an odd combination of features. In a nutshell, it has four SFF-8643/8644 ports (internal/external, depending on -16i vs -16e models). The gimmick is that these can function either as SAS/SATA or PCIe for NVMe (the host-side of the U.2 interface uses SFF-8643, like SAS3).
At launch, each connector supports either a single 4x PCIe 3.0 connection to an SSD or the typical 4x SAS lanes. Future updates will allow for 2x links (presumably over one breakout cable) and support for up to 24 NVMe drives (via PCIe switches, but I get the distinct feeling that there's going to be some lock-in here...).
This feels rather silly, because they're combining a smallish (24-lane) PCIe switch with a largeish (16-port) SAS3 HBA. It would be interesting if this allowed for a single backplane that could take either U.2 devices or SAS/SATA devices, but that's not trivial to achieve - the disk-side connectors are different and U.2 hogs one cable per device, instead of the four per device that SAS does.
Apparently, this is one of Broadcom's upcoming storage products and it's an odd combination of features. In a nutshell, it has four SFF-8643/8644 ports (internal/external, depending on -16i vs -16e models). The gimmick is that these can function either as SAS/SATA or PCIe for NVMe (the host-side of the U.2 interface uses SFF-8643, like SAS3).
At launch, each connector supports either a single 4x PCIe 3.0 connection to an SSD or the typical 4x SAS lanes. Future updates will allow for 2x links (presumably over one breakout cable) and support for up to 24 NVMe drives (via PCIe switches, but I get the distinct feeling that there's going to be some lock-in here...).
This feels rather silly, because they're combining a smallish (24-lane) PCIe switch with a largeish (16-port) SAS3 HBA. It would be interesting if this allowed for a single backplane that could take either U.2 devices or SAS/SATA devices, but that's not trivial to achieve - the disk-side connectors are different and U.2 hogs one cable per device, instead of the four per device that SAS does.