LSI Now Shipping Next-Generation 6Gb/s SAS RAID-on-Chip IC

SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 14. LSI Corporation today announced it is shipping to OEM customers a new 6Gb/s SAS RAID-on-Chip (ROC) IC that more than doubles the RAID 5 random input/output operations per second (IOPS) compared to the previous-generation product. The LSISAS2208 dual-core SAS ROC is designed to optimize the use of solid-state drives (SSDs) in today's server platforms without having to make trade-offs between performance and reliability. The product also is designed for easy migration to future server platforms based on the forthcoming PCI Express 3.0 specification.

"The new LSI 6Gb/s SAS ROC extends our SAS leadership and will help users implementing server platforms based on solid-state drive storage to realize the maximum possible performance benefits with enterprise-level RAID reliability," said Steve Fingerhut, senior director of marketing, Storage Components Division, LSI. "Our OEM customers can deploy the product today to gain a performance advantage while providing the headroom to support future SSD performance gains."

The eight-port LSISAS2208 ROC delivers performance levels up to 400,000 random IOPS in RAID 5, 6 and 10 configurations. It is designed to double the IOPS per dollar for SSDs in application environments such as Microsoft Exchange Server, databases, Web serving and business intelligence.

"The next-generation LSI 6Gb/s SAS ROC is key to unlocking the maximum performance benefit of Seagate SSD solutions," said Carla Kennedy, Seagate vice president of Product Line Management. "The LSI SAS ROC coupled with enterprise-class Seagate SSDs will continue to position SAS as the optimal infrastructure for the enterprise."

The LSISAS2208 integrates a high-performance dual-core 800 MHz PowerPC processor and makes use of LSI MegaRAID technology that has been optimized for dual-core operation. Performance is further enhanced by combining a 72-bit DDR3-1333 SDRAM interface and specialized hardware acceleration engines with an advanced architecture featuring multiple 500MHz, 128-bit point-to-point internal data paths.Since the inception of SAS, LSI has delivered an industry-leading portfolio of products including controller ICs, expanders, host bus adapters, MegaRAID and 3ware RAID controllers, RAID-on-Motherboard (ROMB) solutions and storage systems. Based on a 25-year track record of hardware and firmware expertise and extensive validation processes, LSI is the silicon-to-systems supplier of choice for OEMs that want to deliver a broad set of storage solutions.