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Microsemi is announcing production release of their new Smart Storage SAS/SATA adapters. These latest offerings from Microsemi further advance their Smart Storage offerings for SAS/SATA server storage for data centers with both full board-level solutions and silicon-plus-software solutions for custom embedded storage. These newest additions to Microsemi’s product portfolio include the Adaptec HBA 1100 series, the SmartHBA 2100 series, and the SmartRaid 3100 series. All three are based on Microsemi’s latest 28nm storage controller ICs, the SmartIOC 2100 and SmartROC 3100, which deliver low power consumption, high performance, reliability and a rich feature set geared toward a variety of server storage configurations, including software-defined storage (SDS), cold storage and other enterprise usage scenarios.
Microsemi’s HBA 1100 provides flexibility and performance for SDS applications. The SmartHBA 2100 is a specialized adapter that delivers everything that the HBA 1100 does, and additionally includes the option for basic hardware RAID on a selection of drives, making it an ideal solution for SDS applications that desire RAID for boot drives, or small/medium business (SMB) applications. The SmartRAID 3100 provides maximum functionality, acceleration via caching, and the highest levels of data availability for even the most demanding enterprise storage applications. All three series offer port densities of up to 24 ports, all in half-length, half-height AIC form factor, providing a multitude of port configurations.
According to Pete Hazen, Microsemi’s vice president and business unit manager for Scalable Storage, “Microsemi’s unified Smart Storage stack offers one of the industry’s most reliable and highest performing storage controller software platforms, boasting performance of up to 1.7 million random read input/output (I/O) operations per second. The production release of our Smart Storage 12 Gbps SAS/SATA adapters reflects our commitment to providing solutions for the specific needs of our server original equipment manufacturer (OEM), server original design manufacturer (ODM), hyperscale and system integration customers. With a significant improvement in total cost of ownership, the inherent benefits of a unified firmware and software offering across the full line of products, a significant boost in performance and power savings of 40 percent, we are proud to offer to the market a highly differentiated portfolio of adapters to build upon the success of the Microsemi Adaptec Series 8 RAID solutions.”
Microsemi’s Smart Storage offerings can be employed in any server storage application that utilizes 12Gbps SAS or 6Gbps SATA HDDs or SSDs. SAS/SATA HDDs and SSDs are predicted by industry analyst IDC to still represent some 80 percent of all enterprise drives shipped through the end of the decade. Microsemi has performance-optimized their Smart Storage solutions around SSD performance, and power-optimized for HDD-based cold storage. The features of these latest Microsemi offerings allow them to be utilized in extreme deployment situations, as well as a multitude of hybrid SSD/HDD applications.
The HBA 1100 is optimized for SDS, cold storage and raw high-performance connectivity that includes:
- Adapters with up to 24 ports using 28nm SAS/SATA-optimized silicon, offering an optimal power profile for the target applications
- Support for host-managed and host-aware shingled magnetic recording (SMR) drives
- Broad operating system (OS) driver support, including inbox driver support
- Performance of up to 1.7 million random IOPS
The SmartHBA 2100 is optimized for SDS applications which desire hardware RAID for OS boot drives as well as entry-level RAID for SMBs, with features that include:
- Basic RAID without compromising on the requirement for a fully featured and functional HBA, which is required for multi-path IO and SDS applications
- Mixed mode enables drives to be independently configured as raw drives or as part of a logical volume
- True hardware RAID for RAID 0,1,10 and RAID 5
- Industry’s only basic RAID solution with more than eight ports
The SmartRAID 3100 is optimized for enterprise storage applications which require the highest level of data availability and data center applications which benefit from caching. Features include:
- Adapters with up to 24 ports using 28nm SAS/SATA-optimized silicon, offering an optimal power profile for the target applications
- Zero Maintenance Cache Protection (ZMCP) with a cache size of up to 4GB and integrated cache backup circuitry for optimal cost, thermal performance and operating efficiency
- Board options without cache backup
- maxCache 4.0 included on all adapters with up to ?2TB SSD cache
- Roadmap to maxCrypto controller-based encryption
Microsemi’s Unified Smart Storage Stack, along with the 4th generation of SmartRAID 3100, SmartHBA 2100 and HBA 1100 families of board-level products are available in volume production quantities immediately. For more information, please visit www.microsemi.com/smartstorage; or e-mail sales.support@microsemi.com.
