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How does ASUS Hyper M.2 card work?

Icarus_Radio
By Icarus_Radio
in Storage Devices
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Go to solution Solved by AbydosOne,
6 minutes ago, Icarus_Radio said:

So can anyone help me with the mechanism behind the Hyper M.2 card and "PCIe RAID mode". Any help would be greatly appreciated.

"PCIe RAID mode" = bifurcation on a lot of consumer boards. PLX chips are not necessary for bifurcation.

 

Bifurcation is handled on the CPU/BIOS level. PLX chips allow for multiplexing of PCIe lanes into two full x16 slots (instead of splitting into x8/x8). The Hyper card takes an x16 and splits it into x4/x4/x4/x4 (assuming CPU/BIOS understands bifurcation).

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My office has some ASUS Hyper M.2 cards (this one), I took one home and did some experiments, and the results make me extremely confused. How does this card work?

 

First, I loaded it with 4 NVMe drives (970 EVO) and insert it into an OEM machine. Only the one in the first slot get recognized. That's normal.

 

Then, I tried it on a server that support PCIe bifurcation (Supermicro 4124GS-TNR), all four drives get recognized. That's normal as well and I think it is just a dummy card.

 

However, when I saw the manual of ASUS TUF Gaming B450M PRO S, it says there is a "PCIe RAID mode" that allow all four drives get recognized if you put the card in PCIEX16_1 slot. I happen to have that board and it actually works. This makes me really confused. I do not think ASUS add PLX chips on every supported motherboards, especially this board, since it is a budget board (in my region it costs ~$80). There is no way ASUS puts PLX chips on such a cheap board.

 

So can anyone help me with the mechanism behind the Hyper M.2 card and "PCIe RAID mode". Any help would be greatly appreciated.

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6 minutes ago, Icarus_Radio said:

So can anyone help me with the mechanism behind the Hyper M.2 card and "PCIe RAID mode". Any help would be greatly appreciated.

"PCIe RAID mode" = bifurcation on a lot of consumer boards. PLX chips are not necessary for bifurcation.

 

Bifurcation is handled on the CPU/BIOS level. PLX chips allow for multiplexing of PCIe lanes into two full x16 slots (instead of splitting into x8/x8). The Hyper card takes an x16 and splits it into x4/x4/x4/x4 (assuming CPU/BIOS understands bifurcation).

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                      La Vie en Rose (DNS) ═╬═ Narrative  ╠═ Veda-NAS     ╠═ La Vie en Rose (vmbr)
                                Veda (DNS) ─┘             ╠═ Veda (vmbr)  ├─ Ptolemy (vmbr)
╔═════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╩═ Ptolemy-NAS  ├─ Veda (Mgmt)
║   ┌ Closet ┐      ┌───────── Bedroom ─────────┐                         └─ Veda (IPMI)
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Notes:                                         ├─ Sony PlayStation 4 
─── is Gigabit / ═══ is Multi-Gigabit          ├─ Pioneer VSX-S520
* = cable passed from Bedroom to Media Center  └─ Sony XR65A80K (Google TV)
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5 minutes ago, AbydosOne said:

"PCIe RAID mode" = bifurcation on a lot of consumer boards. PLX chips are not necessary for bifurcation.

 

Bifurcation is handled on the CPU/BIOS level. PLX chips allow for multiplexing of PCIe lanes into two full x16 slots (instead of splitting into x8/x8). The Hyper card takes an x16 and splits it into x4/x4/x4/x4 (assuming CPU/BIOS understands bifurcation).

Okay, so it means I have mixed PCIe bifurcation with PLX chips for a long time. I used to think you need PLX chips to do that. Thank you for correcting me on that.

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