Promise Announces Software RAID on Motherboard

PROMISE Technology, Inc. announces its Software ROMB (RAID on Motherboard) solution for the AMD SP5100 chipset, which provides motherboard manufacturers using AMD’s newest server chipset the ability to have the RAID functionalities on server motherboards without extra IO processors required.

PROMISE has vast experience in designing and manufacturing RAID solutions for a wide range of different applications, ranging from enterprise-class SAS 3G/6G VTrak products, SMB level VessRAID products, SOHO studio and Digital Home SmartStor NAS/DAS products. PROMISE is the first Taiwanese storage vendor with the capacity to offer both 3G and 3G SAS/SATA controller cards. PROMISE has shipped more than 15 million RAID controllers around the world, and has been recognized as the Number 1 leader among all Taiwan-based storage companies.

"The AMD SP5100 chipset offers stability and tightly integrated feature-sets for AMD Opteron processor-based servers," said Buddy Broeker, director, Embedded Computing Solutions Division, AMD. "Incorporating the PROMISE ROMB solution in conjunction with an AMD server platform can help to further simplify storage system development, reduce costs and speed time to market."

"PROMISE has been devoted to developing RAID technology for more than 21 years; our mission is to bring high-performance and cost-effective RAID solutions to all storage applications," says Chi Chen Wu, CTO of PROMISE Technology. "Apart from great achievements in storage subsystems and RAID controller cards, we are pleased to be announcing the SW ROMB solution with support for AMD, who has long been a major technology pioneer in the motherboard chipset field. The PROMISE ROMB solution provides OEM customers and motherboard manufacturers the best-in-class solution for RAID."

AMD’s SP5100 is a south bridge for motherboards that integrates key I/O, communications, and other features required in a state-of-the-art server platform into a single device. It is specifically designed to operate with the AMD SR5600 series north bridge chips, bringing motherboard manufacturers a flexible and reliable chipset solution for today’s enterprise application.

The PROMISE Software ROMB solution offers a cost-effective option for implementing a RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5 or RAID 10 storage system with up to six ports of the south bridge supported high-performance Serial ATA disk drives. PROMISE Technology is the leading provider of Serial ATA interface and RAID solutions, and with software ROMB, users can benefit from PROMISE’s experience in maximizing Serial ATA storage system performance.

PROMISE Software ROMB incorporates many of PROMISE Technology’s advanced features. PROMISE RAID Option ROM Menu provides a simple way to setup RAID mode and drive assignment. The Web-based RAID Management Utility (WebPAM) provides users easy installation, configuration and operation. Hot-Swapping and Hot-Spares simplify disaster recovery efforts, by enabling migration to replacement hardware.

The PROMISE SW ROMB solution also provides a wide range of OS support, including Windows server 2003, 2008, 2008 R2, Home Server, Redhat Linux 4.8/5.4 and SUSE Linux 10 SP3/11. With the multi-OS driver and utility support, the PROMISE ROMB solution can accelerate the deployment process of OEMers and motherboard manufacturers.