Atto XstreamCORE ET 8200 Storage Controller Shipping

Atto Technology, Inc. announces the XstreamCORE ET 8200 storage controller is shipping.

For less than the price of a server, XstreamCORE ET 8200 is a rack controller with base functionality of a performing protocol bridge that enables multiple client servers to remotely access and share any SAS storage over Ethernet with less than 2μs of added latency.

“XstreamCORE is a better way to build high performance scale up / scale-out storage, it really is as simple as separating the high-value storage controller from the commodity storage components,” said Tim Klein, CEO, Atto. “Using Atto XstreamCORE controller combined with any brand of SAS storage and client side software allows our OEM customers to build the most powerful and flexible enterprise storage for their server, cluster or cloud solutions. XstreamCORE sits between storage and compute disaggregating the various components, allowing more flexibility to architect solutions based on their customers compute and storage needs.“

To reach its performance goals, XstreamCORE ET 8200 combines the parallel processing capabilities of the company developed chipsets which include xCORE data acceleration technology with multiple parallel I/O acceleration engines to move data at a fast rate and the lossless RDMA Ethernet protocol iSER (iSCSI Extensions for RDMA) which then integrate with SSD- or HDD-based JBOD storage to create a high bandwidth shared storage solution. With the ability to scale up using any brand of storage or enclosure, XstreamCORE is for performance and large capacity use cases, including storage disaggregation, hyperscale data centers fast block storage, HPC and imaging, databases and financial applications.

“XstreamCORE is a unique offering that replaces any type of target mode server with a self-contained external storage cotroller which requires little to no setup, maintenance or downtime,” said Peter Donnelly, manager, products, Atto. “In addition Atto integrated eCORE Control Engine technology provides un-accelerated command processing for management and storage services, OEM integration with full access to all on-chip resources and drivers with common services that include multi-initiator access to SAS/SATA devices, storage routing, diagnostics, one pane of glass interfacing and host mapping functions.”

The 8200 is an Ethernet version of the centralized, rack-scale flash storage controller that shares and remotely connects up to 960 SAS SSD or HDD drives. XstreamCORE ET 8200 converts 12Gb and 6Gb SAS/SATA storage to 40GbE allowing direct attached JBOD or JBOF storage to be remotely accessed by any authorized user. XstreamCORE then remotely shares this storage over long or short distances using high-speed iSER Ethernet technology. iSER extends iSCSI by eliminating TCP/IP processing overhead and instead uses RDMA to access memory directly without going through the CPU to transport iSCSI commands which preserves interoperability of the iSCSI protocol.

XstreamCORE ET 8200 is the third controller in the XstreamCORE family which introduces Ethernet and complements the company’s FC based controller models. Designed for reliable installations, it has redundant, field replaceable power supplies, allows independent scaling of storage and compute and enables use lower cost SAS/SATA drives and enclosures to be shared over Ethernet networks.