AMCC Rolls Out First 24-Port RAID Controller

The 24-port cabling system uses only three connectors to attach to 24 drives, an approach that is tailor-made for high-performance applications.

AMCC rolled out a powerful new 24-port RAID controller March 19—the first of its kind in the industry—that can safeguard data against two simultaneous drive failures.

Applied Micro Circuits now offers the broadest line of PCI Express-to-SATA II (Serial ATA II) RAID controllers, with 2-, 4-, 8-, 12-, 16- and now 24-port offerings, a company spokesperson said, in Sunnyvale, Calif.

The 24-port cabling system uses only three connectors to attach to 24 drives, which is ideal for high-performance applications, such as those used in financial, health care or scientific environments, the spokesperson said.

Just last week, rival Adaptec introduced its own new set of Unified Serial RAID controllers for the PCI Express interface, including 12- and 16-port models. PCI Express, or PCIe, is a system bus that allows expansion cards with various capabilities to be added to a system. A RAID controller is a device that manages the physical units in a storage system and presents them to the administrator as logical units.

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AMCCs 3ware 9650SE-24M8 delivers RAID 6 throughput speeds of more than 700MB per second, the spokesperson said. The high-speed I/O performance is a result of AMCCs eighth-generation StorSwitch non-blocking switch fabric architecture, the spokesperson said.

Silicon Mechanics, an integrator of rack-optimized servers, storage and high-performance computing products, is offering multiple configurations of the 3ware 9650SE in its Rackform server line.

Adaptec introduces new unified serial RAID controllers. Click here to read more.

"Our customers like the flexibility offered by AMCCs broad line of 3ware 9650SE controllers," said Jack Kintz, vice president of product development for the manufacturer, based in Bothell, Wash.

"The new 24-port model provides our customers with a new level of scalability and performance for their enterprise-level networks. The controllers ease-of-integration features and cable management make our design and integration faster and more secure," Kintz said.

AMCC recently shipped its 2 millionth SATA port. Gartner Dataquests report, "Market Share: Host Bus RAID Controllers, Worldwide, 1998-2005," identifies AMCC as the SATA RAID market share leader in the channel.

AMCCs 3ware 9650SE family of RAID controllers is available in low-profile 2-, 4- and 8-port models, and full-height 12-, 16- and 24-port configurations. All are available through AMCCs worldwide network of distributors, integrators and VARs. Suggested list prices start at $195 for the 2-port configuration and range to $995 for the 16-port model. The 24-port configuration lists for $1,595.

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