NEC Selects Promise and PMC-Sierra

Promise Technology Inc. announced that NEC Corp. has selected Promise Technology’s SuperTrak 6G RAID controller cards for its 6Gb/s SAS server platforms. Promise’s SuperTrak line is powered by PMC-Sierra’s PM8011 SRC 8x6G 6Gb/s SAS RAID-on-Chip (RoC) controller, which enables NEC’s next-generation servers to offer the latest in server storage technology. The new servers provide NEC’s customers with a proven, industry-hardened RAID stack and 6Gb/s SAS RAID controller platform featuring superior levels of performance and scalability.

“NEC has a strong history of working closely with Promise to provide leading RAID solutions that continually exceed our customers’ expectations for ease of use, reliability, robustness and performance,” said Tomoyasu Nishimura, assistant general manager of Server Division, NEC. “The new Promise-PMC-Sierra 6Gb/s SAS RAID solution provides us with a strong enterprise server-storage platform to address the needs of tomorrow’s data center.”

Data center demands for higher computing power, networking bandwidth and support for virtualization applications are driving system requirements for improved host bus interface and RAID performance. The Promise RAID controller card, with 6Gb/s SAS and PCIe 2.0 enabled by PMC-Sierra’s SRC 8x6G, is a key part of how NEC is meeting these demands.

“Integrating our SuperTrak RAID controller technology with PMC-Sierra’s SRC RoC provides OEMs and channel customers with performance differentiation they can rely on,” said Chi-Chen Wu, Senior VP and GM of Network Server and Storage Group, Promise Technology. “Promise is excited to continue building on a successful history with NEC to provide leading RAID and server-storage system solutions.”

The Promise RAID solution harnesses the power of PMC-Sierra’s RoCstar Contention-Free architecture to provide industry-leading RAID performance levels. 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.

“Partnering with Promise on a solution that combines Promise’s RAID technology and RAID adapter product experience with PMC-Sierra’s 6Gb/s SAS market leadership enables further adoption of our SAS solutions by Tier-1 server OEMs like NEC,” said Zaki Hassan, director of product marketing for PMC-Sierra’s Enterprise Storage Division. “Promise’s well-established channel presence also positions PMC-Sierra’s SRC 8x6G RoC to address a broader segment of the overall server RAID market.”

PMC-Sierra’s PM8011 SRC 8x6G RoC is SAS-2 and PCI Express 2.0 compliant, providing 6Gb/s storage throughput and 5Gb/s host bus interface bandwidth, enabling new levels of system performance, power management, and virtualization capabilities. The SRC 8x6G’s breakthrough RoCstar architecture efficiently interconnects all device subsystems, eliminating internal bottlenecks and resource contentions to increase I/O throughput and lower latency. The SRC 8x6G, together with PMC-Sierra’s maxSAS Expanders and Multiplexers, provides a complete 6Gb/s server-storage chipset solution.