Product Info:
Cost-Effective, High-Performance ATA RAID 5 Solution from the Worldwide Leader in ATA RAID Technology
The FastTrak SX4060 ATA RAID PCI adapter delivers industry leading RAID 5 performance at an unprecedented performance-to-price ratio. For companies running popular applications like web services, file/email servers, audio/video streaming and nearline storage, the FastTrak SX4060 opens the world of professional RAID 5 performance and data protection and combines it with cost-effective Ultra ATA (PATA) drives for the ultimate internal storage solution. Based on OEM-proven RAID 5 technology, the FastTrak SX4060 competes with SCSI RAID 5 controllers-at one half to one-third of the price. RAID 5 storage protection is no longer the privilege of budget-rich IT departments.
Hardware-Assisted RAID 5 Architecture
RAID 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 CPU to the controller, Promise's FastTrak SX4060 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. The FastTrak SX4060 sets a new standard for RAID 5 controllers.
Sophisticated Array Monitoring Tools
Promise Array Management (PAM) software offers professional management tools in a simple-to-use, straightforward format. Array configurations, management and monitoring features are available via the windows based management and can be access locally or via the TCP/IP network remotely. Moreover, the FastTrak SX family supports industry standard SNMP so third party management application integration is simplified.
Features
- Four-channel ATA RAID controller with support for up to four Ultra ATA/133 hard drives
- 32-Bit/33 or 66 MHz PCI 2.2 interface
- Support for RAID level 0, 1, 10, 5 and JBOD
- Online array expansion and RAID level migration to add capacity on the fly
- Supports hot swap of failed drives with SuperSwap 1000
- Automatic/manual rebuild of hot spare drive
- Variable stripe block size support enables optimization for diverse application requirements
- 64MB of ECC cache memory
- Seamless upgrade to Promise's external storage solutions
Specifications
Controller Specifications
- Four independent Ultra ATA/133 channels that support up to four drives
- Storage capacity up to 1 terabyte (with four 250 GB drives)
- 32-Bit, 33 or 66 MHz PCI bus; PCI 2.2 compliant
- Promise RAID Processor with XOR engine for RAID parity calculations and memory controller for local cache memory
- 64MB ECC controller cache memory
- FRAM for RAID5 transaction log to avoid data corruption in the event of application hangs
- Built-in GPIO ports for enclosure management
RAID Levels Supported
- RAID 5-- Striped parity on 3-4 drives, ultimate data protection, capacity and performance balance
- RAID 10-- Data mirrored then striped across four drives, for double drive failure protection
- RAID 1-- Mirrored pairs of drives for data protection with increased read performance
- RAID 0-- Data striped across 2-4 drives for increased performance but no data protection
- JBOD-- Just a Bunch Of Drives: independent connected drives with no RAID interconnection
RAID Fault Tolerance and Robustness Features
- Online array expansion and RAID level migration to add capacity on the fly
- PerfectRAID technology for error handling and recovery of fatal, media and disk errors
- DRM. (Drive Roaming Metadata) technology
- Supports drive roaming to any port on the controller
- Allows array roaming in the event of controller failure
- Support hot swap of failed drives and hot spare
- Automatic/manual rebuild of hot spare drive
- Background initialization for instant drive availability
- Background rebuild, migration and synchronization
- Error and event logging
- Variable stripe block size support to meet various application requirements
- Optimal disk utilization with gigabyte rounding
- Support for SMART capable drives
- Synchronization can be scheduled periodically for RAID array data consistency
Advanced Performance Features
- Multiple caching policy support:
- Write-back: Write-back cache for maximum write performance
- Write-through: Write-through cache for data protection in the event of application freeze
- Read ahead: Predictive read ahead caching based on application and data types
- Packet commands and interrupt coalescing minimize interrupts for better performance
- Elevator seek streamlines commands based on where data is located on the disk
- Load balancing (mirrored RAID array only)
Promise Array Management
- Creates, deletes, expands, and converts disk arrays remotely
- Array synchronization and rebuild scheduling
- Monitors drive, array, and enclosure status and provides online event logging
- E-mail notification of disk, array, controller or enclosure events (e.g. error or degrade conditions)
Operating Systems*
Windows: Windows 2000/XP/2003
Linux: Red Hat 8.0/9.0 and SuSE Linux
FastBuild. BIOS
- Array configuration utility at the BIOS level
- BIOS Boot Specification support: boot system from any array
- Flash-upgradable BIOS for future upgrades
Warranty
3 Year Limited Warranty