3ware Escalade 7500-8

3ware Escalade 7500-8 ... architecture to eliminate the performance bottleneck of traditional ATA and SCSI controller designs. The result is a RAID controller that delivers industry-leading performance, data availability and fault isolation. Driven by desktop PC volumes, ATA disk drives represent a tremendous value with higher capacity, reliability and performance, than ever before. By providing the features and performance previously available only in SCSI and other shared-bus RAID systems, the 7500 series enables the use of these cost-effective ATA drives. With StorSwitch architecture, Escalade cards offer improved reliability compared with traditional RAID implementations. Escalade products meet or exceed the requirements for PC server storage in applications such as email servers, workgroup servers and SQL database servers.

Escalade RAID controllers enable new storage applications. By attaching more than a terabyte in a single PCI slot, new applications are made possible for PC servers. Video streaming, archival near-line storage, web farms, large email servers, and other high-density storage applications are served. A new class of disk storage is created. 3ware's StorSwitch architecture with on-board processor makes the difference. Similar to network packet-switching hardware, StorSwitch architecture delivers reliability, scalability, and high performance. A dedicated, port per disk drive provides both drive and cable fault isolation for greater system reliability. The non-blocking switch architecture provides performance scalability StorSwitch architecture incorporates RAID 5 parity computation in hardware for higher performance than software implementations. The on-board processor handles all disk commands, and directs data flow through the switch for reliable RAID operation, independent of the host CPU and O/S. Escalade 7500 series firmware O/S provides intelligent disk management, including RAID strategy, rebuilding, verification and array creation and deletion. Fault detection, cable error detection and retry, command read-back, and dynamic sector repair features contribute to data availability and robustness. SCSI-like command queuing and seek algorithms provide high-end RAID controller performance. Self Monitoring Analysis and Reporting Technology (SMART) information is collected from the disk drives and made available locally and remotely through 3ware's Disk Manager (3DM) utility, making the storage easier to manage and more reliable. 3ware's Escalade 7500 models use a larger packet buffer to cache both random and sequential write operations for much faster RAID 5 writing, making RAID 5 appropriate for demanding streaming applications such as video editing.

Escalade 7500 software consists of drivers and disk management middleware. By adhering to a SCSI device driver model, 3ware insures compatibility with major operating systems. This means that file systems and applications work transparently with this familiar disk interface. The Escalade PCI card includes a built-in BIOS utility for creating, deleting, verifying and rebuilding arrays, making installation and set-up easy. 3DM, 3ware's web browser-based disk management utility, allows local and remote management and monitoring of arrays and their disks. 3DM has a simple native GUI, as well as a browser interface. 3DM also provides email notification of disk array events and other error conditions. For both traditional RAID applications and new, high-density storage environments, the Escalade 7500 series delivers. By enabling reliable, cost-effective, high-performance storage that is easy to integrate and manage, Escalade 7500 ATA RAID controllers set a new standard in storage.