PMC-Sierra 6Gb SAS RAID-on-Chip for HP Smart Array Platform

PMC-Sierra, Inc. announced that its PM8011 SRC 8x6G 6Gb/s SAS RAID-on-Chip (RoC) is shipping on the new high-performance Smart Array RAID controller cards from HP. The superior performance and flexibility of PMC-Sierra’s SRC RoC enables the next-generation 6Gb/s SAS RAID platform to more than double the performance of existing RAID solutions. The new HP P212, P410, and P411 Smart Array RAID cards harness the full throughput of 6Gb/s SAS and 5Gb/s PCI Express 2.0 using PMC-Sierra’s innovative RoCstarTM Contention-Free Architecture to maximize performance in equipment such as the HP ProLiant DL385 G5p and HP ProLiant DL580 G5 servers.

HP Smart Array P411 Controller

"IT professionals will see dramatically improved performance with the new HP Smart Array cards, enabling them to address their immediate storage needs, while future-proofing their data centers for emerging requirements," said Greg Lang, president and chief executive officer, PMC-Sierra. "Providing industry-leading performance and being first to market with end-to-end 6Gb/s SAS chipsets solidifies PMC-Sierra’s position as a technology leader and strengthens our relationship with HP."

According to IDC, a global provider of market intelligence, server shipments are expected to continue to grow above the ten-million-units-per-year mark by 2011. HP is the recognized server market leader by volume with market share of more than 30 per cent.

"Customers need improved RAID performance because of data center demands for higher computing power, storage throughput, and support for virtualization," said Mike Gill, vice president of Industry Standard Servers, HP. "PMC-Sierra’s advanced RoC architecture integrated into the HP Smart Array RAID stack enables us to offer the industry’s highest performance server and storage solutions."

Data center demands for higher computing power, networking bandwidth and support for virtualization applications are driving system requirements for improved host bus interface, input-output, and RAID performance. PMC-Sierra’s RoC device is SAS-2 compliant, doubling the storage throughput to 6Gb/s and enabling a new level of system reliability, availability and scalability. The SRC 8x6G is also PCI Express 2.0 compliant, doubling the host bus interface bandwidth to 5Gb/s while improving power management, diagnostics, and virtualization capabilities. The SRC 8x6G, together with PMC-Sierra’s maxSAS’ expanders and multiplexers, provides a complete server storage chipset solution.

The device’s breakthrough RoCstar architecture efficiently interconnects all device subsystems, eliminating internal bottlenecks and resource contentions that have plagued competing RoC solutions. By enabling simultaneous access to all chip resources, RoCstar technology improves overall system performance by increasing I/O throughput and lowering latency. IT professionals will see a marked performance increase in time-critical functions such as RAID rebuilds and data backup.

The SRC 8x6G integrates the latest in host, drive, and memory interface standards with RAID hardware acceleration and an advanced processor subsystem.

The device integrates
numerous other advanced features, including:

• 8 Port controller compatible with 6.0/3.0Gb/s SAS and 3.0/1.5 Gb/s SATA;
• 8 Lane PCI Express 2.0 host interface – full duplex 2.5/5.0 Gb/s per lane;
• DDR2-800 Memory Controller;
• High performance MIPS-based’ multi-processor subsystem; and
• Hardware XOR and Reed-Solomon Engines for RAID 5 and 6 acceleration.

Availability and Customer Support
The PM8011 SRC 8x6G and evaluation boards are now available to select partners.