LSI To Introduce Enterprise SATA-II Controller At LinuxWorld

The Milpitas, Calif.-based company will introduce the MegaRAID SATA 300 8x controller at LinuxWorld in Boston, said Joe Leader, senior director of worldwide channel marketing and business development at LSI.

The controller offers twice the speed of LSI's SATA-I controller, or throughput of about 3 gigabits per second, and includes native command queuing to improve disk access speed and full backward compatibility with SATA-I hard drives, Leader said. It supports all major operating systems and includes a 72-hour backup battery to protect data in case of a system power failure.

LSI's controller has a port multiplier that theoretically lets it control up to 120 SATA drives, according to Leader. "That's theoretical; no one would do 120 drives," he said. "Thirty-two is more practical. Between 32 and 60 drives, you start getting diminishing returns [on performance]."

With the MegaRAID SATA 300 8x controller, solution providers can promise their customers investment protection, since SATA-II drives can later be moved from the controller to a serial-attached SCSI (SAS) controller when those controllers become available later this year, Leader said.

The controllers, which list at about $549, are expected to ship late this quarter. They will be available through distributors such as Bell Microproducts, Ingram Micro, Tech Data, Arrow Electronics and Microland, Leader said.