FastTrak SX4300 Controllers

FastTrak? SX4300 Highlights4-port SATA RAID controllers with 3.0 Gb/s per port64-Bit/133MHz PCI-X Host Bus InterfaceLow Profile form factorSupport for RAID level 0, 1, 5, 10, and JBODImproved RAS (Reliability, Availability, and Serviceability) functionsOnline capacity expansion and RAID level migration to add capacity as neededHardware-Assisted RAID 5 ArchitectureMultiple logical drive supportAutomatic/manual rebuild of hot spare drivePerfectRAID" technology for robust error handling and recoveryThe Price/Performance LeaderThe FastTrak SX4300 SATA 3Gb/s PCI-X RAID 5 controller delivers industry-leading RAID 5 performance at an unprecedented price/performance ratio. For companies running popular applications like web services, file/email servers, audio/video streaming and nearline storage, the FastTrak SX4300 opens the world of professional RAID 5 performance and data protection and combines it with cost-effective Serial ATA (SATA) 3Gb/s drives for the ultimate internal storage solution. Based on Promise's OEM-proven RAID 5 technology, the FastTrak SX4300 competes with SCSI RAID 5 controllers--at one-half to one-third of the price.SATA 3Gb/s SupportThe FastTrak SX4300 controller supports Serial ATA 3Gb/s drives and conforms to Serial ATA II, Extensions to SATA 1.0 specification with Native Command Queuing and Disk Activity LED headers support. Command Queuing increases I/O performance by intelligently reordering data requests so that the data can be accessed more quickly.Hardware-Assisted RAID 5 ArchitectureRAID 5 implementation involves striping data and parity information (XOR) across the storage array. Since those parity calculations are so processor-intensive, RAID 5 controllers traditionally require a dedicated CPU to perform the XOR calculations and manage the array. Instead of adding a costly dedicated I/O processor to the controller, Promise's FastTrak SX4300 controller uses an integrated XOR engine for parity calculations, delivering extraordinary performance at a dramatically lower price. This approach takes advantage of today's ultra-powerful PC CPUs to manage the array and outperform traditional RAID 5 solutions.Improved RAS FunctionsBased on an architecture similar to the widely successful FastTrak S150 SX4-M, the FastTrak SX4300 adds enhanced features for improved RAS (Reliability, Availability and Serviceability). In addition to an improved RAID algorithm, among the enhanced features are multiple logical drive support, media patrol and read check table. Equipped with the new web-based Promise Array Manager (WebPAM) software, FastTrak SX4300 is extremely easy to manage for both Windows and Linux environments through a browser-based graphical user interface.SpecificationsFour SATA ports at 3.0Gb/s (300MB/sec)Storage capacity up to 8.0 terabytes (with eight 500GB drives x2 controllers/system)Supports Native Command Queuing64-bit, 133MHz PCI-X host bus interfacePromise 41721/81731 RAID Processor with XOR engine for RAID parity calculations and memory controller for local cache memoryOn-board ECC DDR cache memory: 32MB for SX4300, 64MB for SX8300FRAM for RAID5 transaction log to avoid data corruption in the event application hangsDual controller support within a systemSupports SAF-TE enclosure managementLow-profile form factor ideal for 1U/2U serverCombine with the SuperSwap 4100 for an advanced internal storage system