MG9073S

Contents

Summary

SGPIO

SMBus Interface

Backplanes

Links, Contact Information, Datasheets

Summary

The 'MG9073S' is a Backplane Management Controller from American Megatrends, Inc. (AMI).
It supports 2 SGPIO channels, and can drive up to 3 LEDs per slot for up to 8 slots.
Multiple MG9073S chips can be cascaded on the same SGPIO-bus to realize backplanes of more than 8 drives.

SGPIO

SGPIO is an acronym for Serial GPIO which is a 4-signal (or 4-wire) bus used between a Host Bus Adapter (HBA) and a backplane. Out of the 4 signals, 3 are driven by the HBA and 1 is driven by the backplane. Typically, the HBA is a storage controller located inside a server, desktop, rack or workstation computer that interfaces with Hard Disk Drives (HDDs) to store and retrieve data.

SMBus Interface

The SMBus Interface allows a Baseboard Management Processor (BMC) to read registers in the MG9073S parameters such as Number of Slots, Number of HDDs, Presence or absence of HDDs, States of LEDs, Temperature, etc.
The Intelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI) specification defines a set of common interfaces to computer hardware and firmware which system administrators can use to monitor system health and manage the system.

Backplanes

Backplanes are Printed circuit boards (PCBs) that are specifically used in servers and storage enclosures to interface hard disk drives (HDDs) to host bus adapters (HBAs).
Backplanes typically consists of several Drive Interface Connectors, Power Connectors, and other interface connectors for fans, external LEDs, IPMI, external configuration, etc.
This picture shows an 8-HDD backplane from AMI using the MG9073S Backplane Management Controller.

On the opposite side of the backplane, HDDs are connected through hot-swap connectors.

Links, Contact Information, Datasheets

American Megatrends on Wikipedia
American Megatrends, Inc. Company Website AMI
Backplane Controllers from AMI