AIC J4078-02-04X 4U 78-Bay JBOD Enclosure With Broadcom 24Gb SAS Expanders

AIC Inc. launches the J4078-02-04X, a high density 4U 78-bay JBOD enclosure.

This JBOD supports 24Gb SAS and providing performances. High density and performance make it for workloads such as virtualization, enterprise backup storage, cold and warm data storage.

The J4078-02-04X is a 4U top-loading JBOD that supports 78 units of 3.5″ enterprise capacity HDDs, up to 1.PB+ of storage. On-boarded with the Broadcom 24Gb SAS expanders on hub expander modules, the J4078-02-04X I/O performance improves 100% compared to its previous generation. While J4078-02-04X edge expanders remain at 12Gb SAS, it is proven that the doubled bandwidth on hub expanders is the key of enhanced I/O performances.

This directly addresses the performance demand of high density storage in the market while most of the other 4U top-loading JBODs are using 12Gb SAS hub expanders with limited bandwidth for data transmission. Its dual hub expander modules support dual-path redundancy for host link and expansion link. Designed with HA and balanced architecture, each hub expander has 4 MiniSAS HD, providing a total of 16 ports and supporting up to 384Gb/s. With 810mm in depth, J4078-02-04X is one of the shortest in its category and can fit into any existing one meter rack. Its modularized enclosure is designed with hot-swap components and redundant features to increase reliability and ease of maintenance.

The Broadcom 24G SAS expander boosts the doubled I/O performances of J4078-02-04X. It is compliant SAS-4 SerDes. By maximizing the available throughput to the host, the SAS4x expander couples next gen SAS-4 technology and provides high device throughput with SAS to support up to 22.5Gb /s, doubling the effective bandwidth over prior 12Gb/s expanders without compromising energy efficiency and package size. From software and firmware perspectives, the Broadcom 24G SAS expander SDK has 95% commonality with legacy Broadcom SAS expanders, supporting AIC to reduce the resources for developing J4078-02-04X.

“Market demands of 4U top-loading JBOD are soaring as it is cost-effective and can support enterprises to minimize the cost per gigabyte,” said Michael Liang, CEO and president. “I am honored to collaborate with Broadcom in developing J4078-02-04X which is one of the first-to-market SAS4x ready 4U top-loading JBODs. With the aid from Broadcom SAS4x expanders, J4078-02-04X will support our customers to run the most data-intensive storage applications.“

“The strong collaboration between Broadcom and AIC continues with the SAS4x expander family and the J4078-02-04X technology alignment,” said, Zee Shirazi, global head, marketing, data center solutions group, Broadcom, Inc. “Data-centric applications require servers with high I/O performance to move, process, and store massive amounts of data. With AIC’s deep expertise in high-density storage, the J4078-02-04X utilizes the full capability of the Broadcom SAS4x expander family and takes performance to the next level. I am certain this JBOD will support our customers as they tackle the challenges found in today’s high density, demanding storage workloads.”

J4078-02-04X samples will be ready in 3Q22.

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