Supermicro New Zealand
RAID Controllers for System Integrators (7 series)
31 July 2013

We have integrated and deployed completely built and tested solutions with Hardware RAID controllers for many years now. In particular we have built up extensive experience with Adaptec (PMC) controllers over the past 10 years plus. This month we would like to introduce the latest family of products from Adaptec - the 7 series controllers.

On introduction the new 7 series is the industry's only PCIe Gen3 adapter with up to 24 native ports for maximum performance. It takes full advantage of the bandwidth offered by PCIe Gen3; with the right configuration of SSD drives, performance can reach up to 450,000 IOPS (nearly 10x the previous generation) and 6.6GB/s throughput (over 2x the previous generation). PCIe Gen3 enables higher data bandwidth to internal storage:


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Quick Comparison Table (6 and 7 series)


Controller
 Cache Native ports System Bus
 SSD cache option
 ZMCP Form Factor
Physical Connectors
6405 512MB
 4x 6Gb/s
 PCIe x8 2.0 Read
 optional LP / MD2 1x (SFF-8087) Mini SAS
6805 512MB 8x 6Gb/s
 PCIe x8 2.0 Read optional LP / MD2 2x (SFF-8087) Mini SAS
7805 1GB 8x 6Gb/s
 PCIe x8 3.0 Read / Write
 optional LP / MD2
 2x (SFF-8643) mini SAS HD
71605 1GB 16x 6Gb/s
 PCIe x8 3.0 Read / Write optional LP / MD2 4x (SFF-8643) mini SAS HD
72405 1GB 24x 6Gb/s
 PCIe x8 3.0 N/A
 optional FH / HL
 6x (SFF-8643) mini SAS HD

For more information: 6 series or 7 series.

The Controller

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  • Support for up to 256 SAS or SATA devices using SAS expanders
  • Supported RAID levels: 0, 1, 1E, 5, 6, 10, 50, and 60
  • Hybrid SSD/HDD RAID 1 & 10
  • Optional ZMCP (flash-based controller cache protection)
  • Optional maxCache (SSD read and write caching)


SSD Caching

The new 7 series has evolved to support fully redundant SSD write caching; previously only SSD read caching was available on the 6 series. This new ability leverages the performance and latency capabilities of SSD technology for both read and write workloads by setting up an SSD cache pool using either RAID 1, RAID 1E or RAID 5.

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The 7 series sets new performance standards for high-end storage or server applications. We will begin to offer these very shortly in completely built and tested solutions or as individual components for your own system integration requirements. Please feel free to contact us if you would like further information.

Editor

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Supermicro New Zealand
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