The 3ware RAID Goes SAS

processor RAID controller

Unfortunately, the CRN Test Center could not compare HighPoint's RocketRAID 3520 (reviewed on p. 59) with the 9690SA. The 9690SA is an internal adapter that works with SAS drives. The 3ware card could not connect to the same drives used for testing the RocketRAID card.

The 3ware eight-port controller card uses Applied Micro Circuits Corp.'s StorSwitch architecture to communicate with SAS hard drives. StorSwitch is an in-memory multichannel pool that can process I/O from multiple drives simultaneously. StorSwitch's high-speed internal memory hub is reliable enough to meet the demands of a RAID 5 setup without sacrificing too much on transactions. In addition, AMCC's StreamFusion technology provides RAID 5 and RAID 6 caching to guarantee throughput. The 9690SA arrives with 512 Mbytes of DDR 2 memory and supports RAID 0, 1, 5, 6, 10 and 50. The card works with either SATA or SATA 2 drives. Like most 3ware cards, the 9690SA supports multiple Linux kernels and flavors. The controller is housed in a low-profile card. Installing the card on small tower servers, however, is not recommended—the card is long and cuts off precious wiring space between internal drives and peripherals. Like most other controllers on the market, the 9690SA is accessible over a command line interface. In addition, the 3ware card can be managed through a Web interface.