LSI Offers MegaRAID Controller Cards, Host Bus Adapters

Cost-conscious businesses might look to LSI to fill its storage adaptation needs with the company's upgraded family of 6Gb/s SATA+SAS storage adapters.

Networking technology and storage specialist LSI Corp. announced it is expanding its portfolio of 6Gb/s SATA+SAS storage adapters with the introduction of MegaRAID controller cards and host bus adapters (HBAs). Offerings include the first 6Gb/s controller cards in the MegaRAID entry line, expansion of the MegaRAID value and feature lines, and upgraded HBAs including a high port count configuration. The MegaRAID entry-level solution comes in to configurations, the SAS 9240-4i, listed for $229 and the SAS 9240-8i, listed for $325.

The value and feature line products and high port count HBAs are immediately available, while the company said the entry-level controllers are expected to be available in February 2010. The entry line of controllers are designed for inside-the-box connectivity and include the four-port MegaRAID SAS 9240-4i and eight-port SAS 9240-8i cards. New additions to the MegaRAID value and feature lines include the eight-port SAS 9261-8i and the SAS 9280-4i4e, which supports both internal storage and external JBOD expansion with four internal and four external ports. For the MegaRAID Value/Feature line, the SAS 9261-8i model lists for $599 while the SAS 9280-4i4e model lists for $785.

Sergis Mushell a principal research analyst at Gartner, said the use of RAID controller technologies in server and storage solutions has become pervasive from small to medium-size businesses (SMBs) to the enterprise due to their ability to cost effectively extend data protection, I/O performance and system capacity. "Vendors offering a broad portfolio of SATA and SAS RAID controllers based on the latest generation 6Gb/s SAS interface technology will allow customers to implement a high-performance, hardware RAID solution that best matches their application requirements and IT budget constraints," he said.

LSI also expanded its family of 6Gb/s SAS-based HBAs with updated configurations designed for servers connecting to large numbers of drives, both inside and outside the server chassis. The LSI SAS 9200-16e is a sixteen-port 6Gb/s PCI Express SATA+SAS HBA with support for up to 1024 SATA and SAS physical devices. The company said it allows businesses to expand storage capacity up to two petabytes. The new LSI SAS 9212-4i4e enables customers to connect to both internal and external storage arrays and supports up to 256 SATA and SAS physical devices.

"The LSI portfolio of RAID controllers and host bus adapters is the most extensive 6Gb/s SAS product line available to the channel," said Brent Blanchard, director of worldwide channel sales and marketing for LSI. "Our channel customers now have access to 6Gb/s SAS-based storage controllers that span the market from entry-level to enterprise-class systems, providing them with the flexibility to meet the demands of a broad range of applications at affordable price points."