SGPIO / I2C Connectors?

[john2k]

On the backplane of my Super Micro SC113TQ-700CB chassis there are two connectors referred to as I2C / SGPIO connectors.

The manual doesn't give much info about them. What exactly is the purpose of this connector? Is it something that must be used or an optional feature?

 

[Blue Fox]

It's a serial interface to communicate with the backplane. It provides more control over a backplane than is possible with just SAS/SATA connectivity. As for a more detailed explanation, I'm not completely sure, but if you have the option, I would use it (I am with my RAID cards).

 

[john2k]

The motherboard that I'm using, Super Micro X7DCL-3, only has one of these connections while the chassis backplane has two connections. Does that make any difference?

I'm still a bit lost, though, as to what the benefit of this SGPIO feature is. Not even sure how to use it & the server manual isn't much help with that...

 

[lizardking009]

SPGIO controls activity/fail LEDs on the back plane. There are two SGPIO connections on the motherboard for the LSI1068E. Look in the MB manual for connectors J9 and J10.

The SuperMicro backplane probably also needs configuration for SGPIO. Look at their site for the correct documentation.

 

[john2k]

Thank you very much for that. I was actually getting SPGIO mixed up with I2C as I read somewhere that they were somewhat interchangeable, so I took that to mean hardware-wise. I see the J9 & J10 connectors now and also noticed that J7 & J8 were the SATA SPGIO (J9 & J10 are for the SAS) connectors.