Up To 5X Faster Than Competitors, Series 5 Unified Serial(TM) Controllers Deliver Unprecedented Storage Capacity and Value of SATA Connectivity with SAS Scalability
HANOVER, Germany, March 3, 2008 /PRNewswire-FirstCall via COMTEX News Network/ – Adaptec(R) Inc., (Nasdaq: ADPT), a global leader in storage solutions, today unveiled the Adaptec RAID Series 5 Unified Serial controller family, the first RAID solution offering up to 28-port connectivity with both internal and external ports to achieve I/O performance up to five times faster than competitive products.
The Series 5 controllers are engineered to deliver the industry’s most cost- effective solutions for increasing data storage access and scalability, allowing up to 256 SATA(i) or SAS(ii) drives to be seamlessly connected to a single system providing approximately 200TB of storage capacity. These efficient new PCIe interface controllers are designed for a wide range of storage-critical, bandwidth-intensive applications such as Web hosting, digital video surveillance, medical imaging and communications.
Building on Adaptec’s breakthrough Unified Serial Architecture platform, the Adaptec RAID Series 5 family’s unique design of up to 28 ports — 24 internal and four external — allows enterprise data storage solutions to take advantage of low cost SATA environments while delivering SAS performance and reliability. The Series 5 multi-port design delivers tremendous design flexibility to Adaptec’s key customer audiences. It allows system integrators and OEMs to create tiered storage environments that ensure massive scalability while simultaneously simplifying the development and validation process. It allows system resellers to easily sell-up or sell-down by tailoring storage solutions based on individual application requirements. And, it enables enterprise customers to “future-proof” today’s system expenditures with the knowledge that as data capacity demands grow, additional storage hardware can be effortlessly added or swapped.
“Our Series 5 controller family represents yet another Adaptec engineering milestone,” said Suresh Panikar, director, Worldwide Marketing, Adaptec. “Our long-standing relationships with virtually all of the major systems and storage providers give us a unique industry perspective to develop storage controllers with the features, functionality and economies that our customers demand in their next-generation offerings. The engine for this innovation is Adaptec’s Unified Serial Architecture platform which has set the benchmark in the data storage arena.”
The Series 5 controller family achieves unmatched performance based on several levels of technology innovation. The Intel(R) IOP348 I/O Processor is at the heart of the Series 5 architecture delivering a core speed of 1.2 GHz. In addition, Adaptec collaborated with Intel to optimize the fundamental chip-level performance for the Series 5 architecture. Adaptec engineering teams then integrated its proprietary Unified Serial technology platform, allowing unparalleled performance for SATA and SAS environments.
“Based on high-performance, power-efficient Intel XScale(R) technology, the Intel(R) IOP348 I/O Processor delivers enterprise-class SAS and advanced RAID data protection,” said Seth Bobroff, storage general manager, Intel(R) Server Platforms Group. “The Intel(R) IOP348 I/O Processor combined with Adaptec’s Unified Serial Architecture platform allows customers of all sizes to protect their critical data more efficiently and effectively.”
According to Brian Babineau, senior analyst, Enterprise Strategy Group, a leading industry research firm, “Enterprises need technology environments that can adapt to the ever-changing profile of data being created and stored on a regular basis. Today it’s database transactions and Web files, tomorrow it’s medical images and streaming video content. Customers need flexible, modular, high performing storage environments as rich media and file content represent the preponderance of capacity that will be deployed in coming years. Adaptec, which has long been known for its ability to stay one step ahead of evolving market dynamics, is particularly suited to address this need. The new Series 5 RAID controllers meet these needs with compatibility that makes it easy for anyone to deploy, in any environment. Most importantly, this new product family has performance characteristics that are well suited for the deluge of digital information that is upon us.”
The launch of the Series 5 controllers underscores Adaptec’s commitment to providing all the players in the data storage ecosystem — system and storage OEMs, system integrators, value-added resellers, drive manufacturers, enterprise storage software developers and third-party component suppliers — with unsurpassed compatibility, ease-of-implementation and performance configurability in virtually any IT environment.
“We are committed to providing best-in-class WD GreenPower(TM) hard drive solutions, and the architecture and performance of the new Series 5 Adaptec RAID controllers is an ideal complement to our enterprise SATA drives,” said Tom McDorman, WD’s vice president and general manager of Enterprise Storage. “We will continue to work closely with Adaptec to ensure our drives, coupled with the Series 5 controllers, meet the performance, reliability and green power needs of our enterprise customers.”
The Adaptec Series 5 RAID controller family enables global enterprises, typically employing multiple hardware platforms and running more than one operating system, to easily enhance the scalability and reliability of disk drives ranging from cost-effective, high-capacity SATA disk drives, high-performance SAS drives, or both, across existing networks or within a single system.
“Our Eco-Logical(TM) server and storage solutions deliver the performance and flexibility required by complex SATA and SAS environments, as well as the scalability to grow as our customers’ needs evolve over time,” said Geoffrey Noer, senior director of product marketing, Rackable Systems. “Adaptec Unified Serial RAID controllers have been instrumental in fulfilling our requirements for high-capacity, cost-effective enterprise solutions. The improved performance in the new Series 5 controllers will only increase the capabilities we can provide to our enterprise customers.”
Adaptec has delivered more than 25 years of innovation in the storage industry, providing the company with the legacy expertise to support a wide range of operating systems. The Adaptec RAID Series 5 Unified Serial controllers are today compatible with and fully supported by more than 300 third-party systems and storages devices and support multiple operating systems including Windows, VMWare, Linux, UnixWare, FreeBSD, OpenServer, and Sun Solaris.
“As our customers require higher performance for higher capacities, the Adaptec Series 5 RAID controller family is a perfect fit for our needs,” said Kent Lin, general manager, Chenbro Europe B.V., a leading PC chassis provider. “The Series 5 provides the best performance we’ve ever seen, even for our largest 24-slot storage chassis. Because it’s an Adaptec RAID controller, we know that we can count on it to reliably satisfy our most demanding customers today and for the long term.”
About Adaptec RAID Series 5 Unified Serial Controllers
The Adaptec RAID Series 5 family consists of the following seven products, each providing OEMs, system integrators, value-added resellers, and enterprise customers with the ability to cost-effectively meet a wide range of storage needs.
— Adaptec RAID 52445 with 28 ports (24 internal and 4 external)
— Adaptec RAID 51645 with 20 ports (16 internal and 4 external)
— Adaptec RAID 51245 with 16 ports (12 internal and 4 external)
— Adaptec RAID 5445 with 8 ports (4 internal and 4 external)
— Adaptec RAID 5085 with 8 external ports
— Adaptec RAID 5805 with 8 internal ports
— Adaptec RAID 5405 with 4 internal ports
Each member of the Series 5 family is supported by Adaptec Storage Manager(TM) (ASM) allowing local and remote browser- or application-based management across the network from a single console. The intuitive RAID management tool provides pop-up tips and online help to simplify the creation and management of RAID arrays. ASM offers an industry-leading capability to further ensure system reliability and efficient operation.
Pricing and Availability
All seven Series 5 controllers will be shipping and available through worldwide distributors and resellers on March 21, 2008. The controllers are priced at MSRP as follows: 5405 — $425.00; 5805 — $650.00; 5085 — $945.00; 5445 — 945.00; 51245 — $1,075.00; 51645 — $1,200.00; and 52445 — $1,595.00.
About Adaptec
Adaptec, Inc. (Nasdaq: ADPT) provides trusted storage solutions that reliably move, manage, and protect critical data and digital content. Adaptec’s software and hardware-based solutions are delivered through leading Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) and channel partners to provide storage connectivity, data protection, and networked storage to enterprises, government organizations, medium and small businesses worldwide. Adaptec currently offers the industry’s most complete line of multi-port Unified Serial RAID controllers that support both SATA and SAS disk drives and offer connectivity to both the PCIe and PCI-X interconnect. For more information, please visit http://www.adaptec.com or call 1-800-442-7274.
Adaptec is a registered trademark and Unified Serial is a trademark in the United States and other countries. Other product and company names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners. (i) Serial Advanced Technology Attachment (ii) Serial Attached SCSI SOURCE Adaptec, Inc. http://www.adaptec.com Copyright (C) 2008 PR Newswire. All rights reserved News Provided by COMTEX