Intel has unveiled four new RAID controllers which, according to company, makes them the first company to offer a full line of RAID controllers supporting all of the leading storage interconnect standards, including Serial ATA, Ultra320 SCSI and 2-Gigabit Fibre Channel. All are based on common drivers, development tools and firmware, intended to make product development simpler, quicker and less costly.
The Intel RAID Controller SRCZCR is a high-performance modular RAID card featuring Ultra160 and Ultra320 SCSI, and Serial ATA compatibility. The SRCZCR controller enables low-cost RAID capability through standards-based RAID I/O Steering technology, which enables RAID capabilities through a simple PCI plug-in arrangement that utilizes existing SCSI or Serial ATA disk-interfaces. The Intel RAID Controller SRCU42L is a two-channel Ultra320-SCSI RAID controller for high-density servers. It offers two-channel Ultra320 capability for the price of one.
The Intel RAID Controller SRCS14L is, according to the company, the first four-port Serial ATA RAID controller that enables simultaneous access to every channel. The Intel RAID Controller SRCFC22/M/C is a family of 2-Gigabit-per-second (Gbps) Fibre-Channel RAID controllers with the capability to support up to 252 devices in a dual-loop configuration at varying RAID levels.
Intel have also disclosed information about the new TCP/IP offload engine (TOE) technology that it plans to incorporate in future generations of iSCSI, TCP/IP offload, and 10 Gigabit Ethernet solutions, beginning in 2003. The TOE technology processes the many layers of network protocols required to transport data. Offloading these transport functions from the host processor enables wire-speed performance, reduces power requirements and frees the host processor to focus on other applications for platforms operating up to and beyond 10 Gbps. Intel’s silicon-based TOE technology is expected to deliver superior performance and lower power than firmware-based solutions.