PMC-Sierra
Acquires Adaptec Channel Storage Business
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Introducing the maxRAID Multi-Core,
Multi-Threaded RAID Platform for x86 Servers
PMC-Sierra announced the first product in its maxRAID™ product family, the BR5225-80 RAID adapter designed for solid state disk (SSD) storage in x86 servers. This product is based on PMC-Sierra’s market-leading, multi-core SRC 8x6G RAID-on-Chip controller and multi-threaded, performance-optimized RAID stack software. The maxRAID BR5225-80 connects PCI Express® 2.0 to eight SAS/SATA ports at up to 6Gb/s and targets data- and transaction-intensive applications requiring highest IOPS and throughput.
The maxRAID architecture currently delivers 136,000 IOPS in a single RAID controller and can achieve up to 300,000 IOPS, as shown in simulations of PMC-Sierra’s next-generation 6Gb/s SAS RAID solution. The RAID platform also includes the maxRAID Storage Manager, a web-based graphical application with an intuitive user interface that allows users to manage their server storage efficiently from a standard browser on any console within the company or VPN.
A New Class of RAID Adapter Optimized for SSDs
Today’s RAID adapters are designed for hard diskdrives (HDDs), which provide a fraction of the performance of a single SSD. In many cases, multiple enterprise HDDs are “short stroked” to use a small portion of the overall capacity to gain better performance. This technique reduces disk utilization on each HDD and creates a costly solution to improve performance. PMC-Sierra’s maxRAID BR5225-80 uses a multi-threaded, multi-core architecture combined with a RAID stack that can leverage the full performance advantages of SSD storage, saving system cost, lowering data center power requirements and maximizing storage capacity utilization.
"SSDs are the next standard for fast and efficient server storage, and a new class of RAID adapter is needed to enable the performance potential. The market is ready for a RAID adapter solution that is optimized for solid-state storage, especially in transaction-oriented applications where today’s servers have to wait for storage."
Roger Cox, research vice president, Data Center Systems, Gartner
Breakthrough Results with PMC-Sierra’s maxRAID Architecture
PMC-Sierra’s maxRAID architecture changes the game for RAID and server storage, producing performance far beyond today’s solutions. The architecture combines multiple RAID processing cores and PMC-Sierra’s RoCstar™ interconnect with the multi-threaded maxRAID stack to create an extendible architecture that efficiently scales as more cores and processing power are added to next-generation RAID-on-Chip ICs. PMC-Sierra’s maxRAID architecture and next-generation RAID-on-Chip controllers will take future RAID 5 random read performance from today’s 136K IOPS with the maxRAID BR5225-80 up to up to 300K IOPS on a single controller. A server configuration with four next-generation PMC-Sierra maxRAID adapters each connected to eight SSDs will achieve greater than one million IOPS.
PMC-Sierra’s maxRAID Platform is the Industry’s First PCIe RAID Solution to
Comply with SNIA’s SMI-S Version 1.4
PMC-Sierra's maxRAID™ Storage Manager and BR5225-80 RAID adapter is the industry’s first PCIe® RAID solution to pass the Storage Networking Industry Association’s (SNIA) Conformance Testing Program provider suite for the Storage Management Initiative Specification (SMI-S) version 1.4. By conforming to the SMI-S 1.4 specification, PMC-Sierra’s maxRAID adapter is interoperable with compliant management suites from major server manufacturers.
Adopted by the SNIA in 2002, the SMI-S is the global standard used by server and storage vendors as well as end-users to simplify storage management. The SMI group developed the Conformance Testing Program (CTP) to allow storage vendors to demonstrate SMI-S compliance, ensuring products that pass the CTP interoperate seamlessly with other storage management products.
“PMC-Sierra is demonstrating its commitment to providing interoperable storage management solutions by ensuring that its PCIe RAID solution conforms to the SNIA-CTP provider suite for SMI-S version 1.4. SNIA CTP Version 1.4 includes test report enhancements and expanded storage functionality tests to broaden enduser’s ease of use for procurement and planning, as well as vendors’ SMI-S feature adoption.”
Don Deel, SNIA SMI chair
PMC-Sierra's Storage Products in the News
“PMC-Sierra and IBM engineering teams worked together to bring to market a high-performance enterprise RAID solution for x86 servers. The maxRAID BR5225-80 offers customers of our newly announced eX5 servers the application performance they require in a RAID solution with solid state disks. The PMC solution enables IBM to offer a RAID adapter that takes full advantage of SSD-enabled system performance.”
Jan Janick, vice president,
Blades and System
x Server Development, IBM
PMC-Sierra Acquires Adaptec Channel Storage Business
On June 8, 2010, PMC-Sierra announced it completed the acquisition of Adaptec's channel storage business. The business operations of PMC-Sierra's existing Enterprise Storage Division and the Channel Storage business will remain unchanged and serve their respective customers. The acquisition is strategic for PMC-Sierra, combining Adaptec’s RAID storage product line, the Adaptec® brand, a well-established global value added reseller customer base, board logistics capabilities, leading SSD cache performance solutions and key personnel, with PMC-Sierra's deep silicon expertise, storage software and firmware experience and industry leadership position in 6G SAS for Servers and Storage systems.
The acquired channel business will operate as a stand-alone PMC-Sierra business unit called the Channel Storage Division, and will be led by Jared Peters, vice president and general manager, and formerly vice president of sales and marketing at Adaptec.
For more information about Adaptec Channel Storage Products, click here.
PMC-Sierra is a leading provider of enterprise storage system solutions for networked (SAN/NAS) and server storage applications, with a broad portfolio SAS/SATA and Fibre Channel protocol controllers, RAID controllers and SAS and FC disk interconnect products. PMC-Sierra’s Tachyon® protocol controllers, Fibre Channel loop switches, enclosure management controllers and maxSAS™ expander switches and multiplexers provide the industry’s most comprehensive solution for enterprise-class storage systems. Together, these products are providing end-to-end semiconductor and software solutions to the industry’s leading storage OEMs and ODMs.