Internal Onboard SATA 6 Gb/s Ports Bridge & Controller Model in Mac Pro (2023)

Hello OrgamiFan1–

Thank you for the reply.

However, as you have observed: Apple’s Technical Specifications for the Mac Pro 🖥️ (2023) posted on the Apple 🍎 website for the Mac Pro (2023) is woefully inadequate and really says nothing.

Just like MPEG-4 is a family of standards and not just a single CODEC (it can be a basic MP4 or MPEG-4 Part 10 (H.264) aka AVC (or AVCHD) and anything in between),

similarly Serial ATA is not just 1 set standard: in addition to generations SATA I, SATA II, SATA 6 Gb/s,

each generation and revision has optional features such as

• NCQ (Native Command Queuing), hot plug/unplug support
• Staggered spin up (to prevent overloading the power supply)
• Spread spectrum clocking (to reduce the impact of any electromagnetic interference on other devices)

• eSATA (external Serial ATA) which requires a slightly higher voltage to allow for longer external cable lengths
• eSATAp (power [over] eSATA) which combines eSATA with a co-located USB port to provide power to the eSATAp compliant device

and of course

• Port Multiplier support and if it supports port multipliers, which kind:
  • the inferior kind (Command Based switching):

or the much better

• FIS (Frame Information Structure) based switching which allows simultaneous access to all the drives connected to the port multiplier:

(and requires NCQ to also be implemented for it to work)

In the Microsoft Windows 🪟 ecosystem, each computer 🖥️ or motherboard manufacturer clearly specifies which manufacturer and model storage (or other onboard device) controller they provide (e.g. the ASUS Pro WS WRX80E-SAGE SE motherboard with the AMD WRX80 chipset for AMD Ryzen Threadripper Pro processors provides 4 additional Serial ATA 6 Gb/s ports via the ASMedia ASM1061 Serial ATA 6 Gb/s controller internally on board in addition to the 4 provided by the AMD Ryzen Threadripper Pro System on Chip (since it is based on the AMD Epyc server processor which directly provides a SATA controller onboard the processor as a SoC) or AMD WRX80.

So all I would have to do is go to the webpage for ASMedia ASM1061 Serial ATA 6 Gb/s controller (or contact) and get all technical specifications that ASUS does not explicitly list and contact ASUS technical support to find out if any of the features listed by ASMedia for that controller have been disabled by ASUS as the OEM (as an aside: ASMedia is a subsidiary integrated circuit design company and division owned by and within ASUS that also sells its controllers and bridges to 3rd party OEMs such as Apple 🍎).

Every Apple sales advisor, Genius at the Apple 🍎 Store or Senior Advisor at AppleCare technical support draws a blank when I ask them the same thing that lowest level rep at ASUS, MSI, Gigabyte, HP, Dell, or SuperMicro is able to answer without any struggle that Apple 🍎 clearly demonstrates.

The fact that I am unable get an an answer to this basic level pre-sales question from anyone at Apple 🍎 is disappointing, bewildering, and unacceptable. I hope Apple 🍎 improves providing this information to customers.

As far as the Mac Pro 🖥️ (2023), the specific Serial ATA 6 Gb/s controller to drive the onboard SATA ports can easily be identified be looking at label 🏷️ on the integrated circuit (chip) presumably located on the underside of the logic board:

(screenshot of the YouTube video of the Mac Pro 🖥️ (2023) teardown by iFixIt, but the resolution is too low and blurry to identify anything other than the big silver colored Microchip Technology PCI-Express switch).

System Information identified the manufacturer as ASMedia SATA 6 Gb/s controller as previously mentioned, just not which specific one:

If anyone can look at it and identify it and tell me: that will go a long way to getting this question answered.

[Edited by Moderator]

Mac Pros 🖥️ in the past (2008-2019) did not support Port Multipliers with the onboard Serial ATA ports because those ports were controlled by the Intel RST (Rapid Storage Technology) SATA controller located on the Intel chipsets (Intel C621 chipset for the Intel Xeon W (Workstation) processor in 2019) and Intel RST SATA controllers never supported Port Multipliers.

But Mac Pro 🖥️ (2023) is different in that the 2 onboard internal SATA ports are controlled, not by an Intel RST SATA controller, but an ASMedia SATA 6 Gb/s bridge and controller which does support Port Multipliers (unless disabled by Apple 🍎). Problem is 7 out of the 8 state they support Command Based switching with Port Multipliers and 1 of them doesn’t specify if it is Command based switching or FIS-based switching.

I can route internal SATA ports externally with a simple internal SATA to eSATA expansion card slot bracket:

[Edited by Moderator]

I have been successfully able to both hotplug and unplug as well as use Silicon Image SteelVine SiI 4726 FIS-based SATA II Port Multiplier 5-port hub as well as 5-drive bay enclosure

with a Silicon Image SATAlink SiI 3122 SATA II controller

based add in SATA II ExpressCard on an Apple 🍎 MacBook Pro 💻 (2008) just fine without any issues whatsoever.

[Edited by Moderator]

Also, while I appreciate your intent to help, this is a classic example of the problem of utter tone deafness with Apple 🍎 as a company.

You are by no means the only one, but why would you send me this:

“The information in the article below might help.

Install or replace SSD modules in your Mac Pro (2023) - Apple Support

Install and replace parts in your Mac Pro (2023) - Apple Support”

when neither of those articles have ANYTHING to do with with Serial ATA let alone my question about port multiplier support and hot plug / unplug support or identifying the ASMedia SATA 6 Gb/s controller model?

The 1st article is strictly about the NVMe SSDs (Serial ATA not even mentioned or referenced) and the 2nd article is about everything else except SATA with no mention of SATA ever made: why would you send or post those in response when it has 0 (not even remotely) to do with what I asked?

It seems like Apple 🍎 as a company just sends out random articles to its customers without any critical thinking applied or exercised to determine if said article(s) have anything to do with the question or problem at hand just for the sake of sending something when it serves no purpose whatsoever. This is a systemic problem I have faced at all levels at Apple 🍎 for years and it drives customers away.

Only those articles that address DIRECTLY relate to the question should ever be sent or posted.

Out of all the specifications that you copied and posted, none of it was relevant to my question except 1 bullet point:

• Two Serial ATA ports (up to 6Gb/s)

And that too is not something that I had not already seen and was actually the reason for posting my original question to begin with.

NONE of the other specs blindly copied and posted had any relevance. Simply filling up a post with irrelevant specs or referencing irrelevant articles does not answer the question. Apple 🍎 needs to apply critical thinking when replying to customers and not blindly copy and paste and send random stuff just for the sake of sending or posting “something”.

[Edited by Moderator]

K Shaffer–

The only reason I referenced “old” stuff from “2004/2008” was in response to and to refute Grant Bennet-Alder’s false assertion that Apple 🍎 never supported either SATA hot plug or unplug at the OS level or ever supported Port Multipliers as my actual experience with them has proven otherwise and I simply cited the specific hardware used in order address that false claim: that in no way should be a violation of community guidelines.

That being said, to address your concern about my question and post: the main focus of this question and thread is the Mac Pro 🖥️ (2023) that was just released last month (June) of this year (2023) and the Serial ATA 6 Gb/s ports contained in them and identifying the specific SATA 6 Gb/s controller in them (which Apple 🍎 macOS Ventura clearly and unambiguously identifies as being an ASMedia) since that determines its capability. Port Multipliers are not an “old” or outdated feature or technology from 20 years ago: it is part of the latest and current Serial ATA 6 Gb/s standard as clearly identified by the SATA-IO.

Hope this makes clear the spirit and intent and the relevance of my question and post to present (2023) and the Mac Pro 🖥️ (2023).

[Edited by Moderator]

K Shaffer–

Not an advertisement: screenshots were the only other option and had to be provided since no direct URL was available as Silicon Image no longer exists as an independent company (it was bought out by another) and those products are no longer in production with Marvell and ASMedia (which is what System Information ℹ️ in macOS Ventura identifies as what Apple 🍎 uses in the Mac Pro 🖥️ (2023) as previously mentioned) evidently have taken over or continued offering that in the market.

I get 0 benefit from it nor do they (they no longer exist independently) and is not advertising for anyone.

The ONLY reason I brought it up and referenced it (not “advertised”: there is a huge difference between the two) was to address Grant Bennet-Alder’s claim (and refute it based on my actual experience) that macOS never supported hot plug / unplug or Port Multipliers when I have successfully done both with the MacBook Pro 💻 (2008) using an eSATA II ExpressCard that used a Silicon Image SATA SiI 3132 SATA controller and connected it both an eSATA II Port Multiplier hub that used a Silicon Image SteelVine SiI 3726 SATA II port multiplier (I previously incorrectly had stated SiI 4726 (which is a firmware RAID model not used in the hub) by mistake) and a Silicon Image SteelVine SiI 4726 eSATA II to SATA II backplane port multiplier 5-drive bay enclosure just fine.

Case in point: I was in fact able to use both internal SATA II / 6 Gb/s hard disk drives and Sony BD-RE DL (Blu-ray Disc REwritable) drives in eSATA II enclosures as well internal SATA II / 6 Gb/s HDDs in the Silicon Image SteelVine SiI 4726 port multiplier 5-bay enclosure in Mac OS X Leopard 🐆 on the MacBook Pro 💻 (2008).

The only possibility is if that has since changed in the years and been blocked in later revisions of Mac OS X / macOS and Macs, but no one has said that yet: Grant Bennet-Alder only claimed that they never did support it and I know from actual experience that is absolutely not true. What has happened since then, I have no idea yet and others might know if that has changed.

[Edited by Moderator]

Also, is the ASMedia Serial ATA 6 Gb/s controller a separate IC (Integrated Circuit), i.e. chip, mounted on the logic board and if so where or is it (and its IP – intellectual property) implemented as part of the Apple 🍎 M2 Ultra SoC (System on Chip) just like the SATA 6 Gb/s controller on AMD EPYC (and/or presumably AMD Ryzen Threadripper Pro) SoCs much the same way that Imagination Technology PowerVR GPUs (Graphics Processing Units) were implemented as part of the SoC up through the Apple 🍎 A10X SoC after which Apple 🍎 apparently implemented its own GPU starting with the A11 SoC?

The reason for asking this is if this is the case (the ASMedia SATA 6 Gb/s controller is implemented as part of the SoC) and not as a separate IC on the logic board, there will be no IC in the logic board to visually find and identify which ASMedia SATA 6 Gb/s controller model is implemented in the Apple 🍎 Mac Pro 🖥️ (2023) even by disassembling it in a teardown just as iFixIt has famously done and any identification can only attempted via software or programmatic means by identifying device ID strings.

Does anyone have a higher resolution photo of the backside of the logic board than this blurry one from iFixIt’s teardown review so that the ASMedia 6 Gb/s SATA bridge and controller IC (integrated circuit) can be properly identified?