Features - Storage Innovations:

PROMISE INTRODUCES AFFORDABLE RAID 5 HARDWARE

Promise Technology Inc, a leading supplier of ATA RAID solutions, announced the availability of the FastTrak S150 SX4, a RAID 5 PCI Serial ATA (SATA) adapter for Serial ATA/150 drives. The FastTrak S150 SX4 PCI adapter provides an unprecedented performance-to-price ratio, opening the benefits of professional performance RAID 5 technology to users who have struggled against the historically oppressive price barriers of RAID 5.

RAID 5 is recognized as the storage professional's choice for its combination of enhanced performance, data protection, and increased capacity, but the cost of RAID 5 hardware has traditionally restricted its broad market success. The FastTrak S150 SX4 sets a new standard in RAID 5 HBA architecture by replacing the high-cost traditional IO processor on the RAID HBA with a low-cost, high-performance Promise RAID 5 ASIC that integrates a RAID 5 XOR engine and cache memory controller. The XOR engine used for the intensive parity calculations required for RAID 5. This architecture provides a unique benefit of delivering higher performance at a fraction of cost of traditional RAID 5 HBAs. The throughput is directly related to the performance of the high-powered host system Pentium CPU and is priced at a fraction of the cost of competitive RAID 5 solutions.

Promise's FastTrak S150 SX4 provides four independent SATA ports for up to four Serial ATA/150 drives, an ideal fit in entry-level server environments where price-sensitivity is high. With currently available drive sizes, the controller supports protected, high-performance RAID 5 capacities up to 750GB.

"As the pioneer of ATA RAID and the leading provider of ATA solutions, Promise has always championed the importance of ATA RAID as an enabling technology for cost-effective server storage. Now Promise has once again re-defined storage and the traditional RAID 5 HBA architecture with a price-performance paradigm shift using our own high performance RAID 5 ASIC technology," said Sam Sirisena, vice president of sales and marketing worldwide of Promise Technology Inc "While Promise's unique solution flies in the face of traditional cards that rely on an expensive on-board processor for RAID 5 calculations, the FastTrak S150 SX4's integrated hardware blows through the processor bottleneck with better performance at one-third to one-half the cost. By providing high-performance and highly affordable SATA RAID 5, the FastTrak S150 SX4 promises server users a new standard for server storage. The selection of this product by several world class tier 1 OEMs proves that we are on the right track, with our FastTrak as always."

The new FastTrak S150 SX4 Serial ATA RAID controller builds upon Promise Technology's leadership in ATA RAID. From the first ATA RAID controllers launched by Promise in 1997, Promise has shipped over five million ATA RAID controllers through many world class top tier OEM PC vendors and worldwide premier distributors, and now the FastTrak S150 SX4 is emerging as the choice for RAID 5 in many of the world's leading OEM servers.

Promise's FastTrak S150 SX4 controller leverages the company's hardware and software expertise to maximize performance and reliability. To assure faster transfers, Promise cards use sophisticated data handling techniques to make data transfers more efficient and minimize overloading the host system CPU and slowing system response. Promise FastTrak controllers also include user-friendly FastBuild software to simplify installation and Promise Array Management (PAM) software, a professional-level visual administration tool to monitor and maintain the storage subsystem. The FastTrak S150 SX4 takes advantage of Promise's unique PerfectRAID technology for robust error handling and recovery.

When combined with Promise Technology's SuperSwap 1100 hot swap drive enclosure for Serial ATA drives, the FastTrak S150 SX4 offers the only complete, cost-effective high-availability internal storage system on the market. Packed with advanced capabilities such as hot-swap functionality, enclosure management, and other high-end multi-drive system features, the SuperSwap 1100 works with the FastTrak S150 SX4 to provide reliable high-availability storage needed for critical applications such as email servers that need to be running constantly.

"Small, high-performance systems with server-class internal storage are becoming an increasingly popular solution with our customers," said Andrew Kretzer, Director of Sales and Marketing, for BOLData Systems. "By combining Promise's FastTrak S150 SX4 adapter with SuperSwap 1100 hot swap drive enclosures, we can offer our customers a cost-effective, high availability solution that is perfect for their needs."