To fully exploit the 150Mbytes/sec capabilities of Serial ATA (SATA) disks you have to stripe data across multiple drives using a specialised Raid controller, such as those in the Escalade 8500 Series from 3Ware. The adaptor has many advantages, starting with its non-blocking switching architecture which dedicates the full 150Mbytes/sec bandwidth to each attached disk in turn. The card also features an onboard processor for true hardware-based Raid, with support for Raid 0, 1, 10 and 5, plus hot-swapping and hot spares. You can also configure multiple logical volumes and Raid levels on one adaptor. Dynamic expansion of volumes won't be supported until later this year. Battery backup for the cache will be in the next release.

We tested a four-disk 8500-4 controller with Western Digital 10,000rpm Raptor disks attached, although any SATA drive can be used and it's possible to attach parallel drives using special converters. Each disk has a separate 1m cable, which is thin, allowing for easy installation with less airflow impact.

Drivers are included for use with all current versions of Windows, plus Red Hat and Suse Linux. All make the storage look to the operating system like a standard SCSI implementation for application compatibility. Logical volumes can then be set up and managed either from the Bios or via a web-based management interface.

Maximum performance came with a Raid 0 setup where we achieved transfer rates of just under 130Mbytes/sec, well below what you'd get with an Ultra320 SCSI setup, but good given the price. Performance with other Raid levels was also below what we've achieved with SCSI. However, it's ideal in small company and departmental servers where SCSI is expensive, the 3Ware Raid controller and 10,000rpm Raptor disks making for a good combination in such situations.

Contact: 3Ware +353 61 702045 (Ireland)
www.3ware.com

Specifications:

• PCI 2.1 compliant SATA Raid controller
• 64bit/33MHz bus master card
• Four auto-sensing SATA interfaces
• 4MB cache memory