Introduction

The 3ware 9550SX PCI-X to SATA II RAID controller delivers over 800MB/sec RAID 5 reads and exceeds 380MB/sec RAID 5 writes, making it 200% faster than the industry-leading 3ware 9500S RAID controller.

7th generation StorSwitch™ non-blocking switch fabric technology and sophisticated SATA II features including 3 Gbps transfer speed, Native Command Queuing (NCQ), and Port Multiplier support drive this unmatched performance.

Combined with an advanced RAID management feature set that includes web-based, command-based, and API software components, the 9550SX, available in 4, 8, 12, and 16-port configurations, is the most compelling RAID solution available.

Features

• 7th-generation StorSwitch™ point-to-point, non-blocking switched architecture
  
• On-board PowerPC RISC processor provides true hardware RAID — SCSI device driver model to take advantage of the benefits of SCSI using inexpensive Serial ATA drives
  
• Bootable array support for greater fault tolerance
  
• Variable stripe size for performance tuning by application
  
• 64-bit LBA support
  
• ATA pass-through mode support
  
• Up to 256 MB DDR2 400 memory with ECC protection
  
• 32 pooled DMA channels
  
• Complete configuration management suite
  — 3ware BIOS Manager 2 (3BM2) – easy to use BIOS configuration tool
  — 3ware Disk Manager 2 (3DM®2) – browser-based management tool
  
• Features include: secure access via ssh or https, create unit, delete unit, remove unit, import unit, migrate unit, verify unit rebuild unit
  — Command Line Interface (CLI) – scriptable configuration tool
  
• SNMP support
  
• SMTP support for email/pager notification
  
• ATA/6 and Out of band (OOB) staggered drive spin-up support
  
• Auto carving allows logical units larger than 2 TB to be divided into multiple units for legacy operating systems that are limited to a maximum of 2 TB per logical unit
  
• StorSave platform for advanced performance tuning with the BBU
  
• Multiple logical unit sizes and RAID levels on one card
  
• Multiple card support within a system for large storage requirements
  
• Hot-swap and hot-spare support for data availability
  
• Dynamic sector repair for robust data protection
  
• S.M.A.R.T. disk drive monitoring for reliability
  
• Emergency Flash Recovery protects against failed firmware upgrade
  
• Drive activity LED support
  
• Online Capacity Expansion and RAID Level Migration
  
• Battery Backup Unit (BBU) ready
  
• Enhanced data protection with write journaling for non-redundant arrays and accidental drive removal
  
• Drive insertion and removal notification
  

Specifications

Operating System Support

• Microsoft® Windows® 2003/XP/2000, Red Hat Linux, SuSE Linux, Fedora Linux, 2.4 Linux kernel, 2.6 Linux kernel, FreeBSD, 32/64-bit support.