Starline Partner Areca Presents NVMe Controllers ARC-1686

Areca Technology Corp. presented the hardware RAID adapters for PCIe 4.0 (x8).

The cacheless NVMe controllers, named ARC-1686, have 2, 4 or 6 NVMe M.2 SSDs piggybacked on the board, depending on requirements. Thus, they are able to secure their contents and also accelerate them.

At the center of the series is its ARM A15 dual-core processor, which the developers have designed as a RAID on Chip (RoC) controller. With 8 lanes on the PCIe bus Gen 4.0, the ARC-1686 models provide a higher performance level for SATA and NVMe drives. The fast, reliable and compact RAID controller family is said to enable enterprises to tackle high-speed data acquisition and processing.

NVMe performance boost delivers higher data throughput
This RAID adapter family has 2, 4 or 6 NVMe slots for M.2 SSDs built in, depending on the model variant. At the same time, the ARC-1686 controllers support both 2280 and 22110 form factors. Thus, they deliver high I/O performance to accelerate database applications and streaming environments. In doing so, the hardware RAID adapters offload the host to maximize application processing performance.

Among Areca’s RAID solutions, the ARC-1686 family becomes an affordable hardware RAID solution, delivering performance with increased throughput and achieving high IO/s rates at low latency. The top model ARC-1686-6NOD, for example, achieves this through a combination of adjustable RAID levels: 0, 1 (simple/multi mirroring), 10, single disk (single/dual/triple) and JBOD.

High data security guaranteed
In terms of data security, the ARC-1686 models bring the important Power Loss Protection (PLP) module, which the developers have optimized for data center environments. It uses built-in capacitors on the NVMe SSDs that release power until the data has been transferred from the internal NVMe DRAM to the NAND flash in the event of a sudden power interruption.

The ARC-1686 controllers use their built-in supercapacitors to provide bypass power outside the module. Thus, there is no need to rely on the capacitors of an NVMe SSD, which in turn helps reduce costs. The onboard supercapacitor that supports the M.2 slots accurately displays its status via a fault LED so that a failed drive can be identified. The power disable feature allows you to turn off a physical NVMe drive to perform a hard reset.

Intuitive RAID management
As usual, Areca’s entry-level series supports a range of OSs, just like the tri-mode RAID adapters of the top ARC-1886 series. The use of the tools is also the same: With the MRAID program, for example, the RAID adapter can be conveniently controlled and managed. Firm’z engineers also allow access via browser-based GUI or via CLI utility. These options also give users the ability to configure, update and monitor their controllers. Customers can also access the GUI via the ArcHttp proxy server. Through it, the administrator also manages other RAID units on the same network.

Highlights:

• PCIe 4.0 host interface, PCIe Gen4 x8 lanes with a maximum transfer rate of up to 128Gb/s
• 2, 4 or 6 M.2-SSDs per controller
• 2-Ports for SATA & PCIe (NVMe)
• Hardware RAID solution with RAID levels 0, 1 (simple/multi mirroring), 10, single disk (single/dual/triple) and JBOD
• Individual NVMe Power Disable function
• SED-Support
• Power Loss Protection (PLP)
• Supercapacitor
• Beep for warning states of the RAID adapter
• Driver for Windows, macOS, Linux, FreeBSD/Free-NAS/NAS4Free/XigmaNAS, TrueNAS, unRAID, XenServer Citrix Hypervisor, OpenBSD & NetBSD, VMware

ARC-1686-NOD series controllers are available from Starline Computer GmbH.

The 3 models are available at the following gross end-user prices (without SSDs):

• ARC-1686-2NOD (600 Euro)
• ARC-1686-4NOD (750 Euro)
• ARC-1686-6NOD (900 Euro)