3Ware 8506-12 - Escalade RAID Controller Features Manual

Escalade 8506 Series — 

High Performing, Scalable and Reliable!

3ware combines an advanced switched RAID 

architecture (StorSwitch) with SATA drives to deliver

a premium performance, highly available storage 

solution. Each controller boasts a PCI 66MHz custom

ASIC that combines an integrated RISC processor,

PCI bridge (64-bit, 66MHz) and XOR RAID engine.

The Escalade 8506 series features the only 8 and 

12 port SATA RAID controllers available on the 

market today, with support for up to 3TB of storage

per controller (dependent on drive capacity, 2TB 

per single array maximum.)  The Escalade 8506-8 

and 8506-12 are ideal for enterprise storage applica-

tion environments where high levels of sustained

reads and writes are required. Applications include

NAS storage, webservers, cluster servers, near-line

backup and archival, security systems as well as

streaming applications for audio and video servers.

For 2U rackmount servers, 3ware offers the 

low-profile 4-port Escalade 8506-4LP.

In accordance with its comprehensive quality 

practice, 3ware puts all products through stringent

testing and works closely with third party hardware

and software partners to ensure compatibility.

StorSwitch Architecture — SATA

Solutions Optimized for Performance

3ware’s innovative switched fabric architecture

(StorSwitch) is opening minds throughout the 

industry to the fact that

SATA based storage can 

be highly reliable, available

and meet maximum 

performance standards.

The StorSwitch architec-

ture is a non-blocking

switched fabric that 

communicates with 

each drive via a unique

port identifier. Based 

on a combination of

design elements, which

include command queues, write caching algorithms

and interleaving data from each drive across the PCI

bus, StorSwitch enables multiple synchronous threads

to be executed simultaneously.The use of packet

switching technology means that no drive waits or is

penalized by another drive because of bus arbitration,

while executing read/write commands.The result is

superior overall system performance compared to

other Serial ATA RAID controllers.

No Risk Reliability 

RAID is a must in environments where performance

and reliability cannot be compromised.The Escalade

8506 SATA RAID controllers all support RAID levels

0,1,10, 5 and JBOD

1

. Data availability is maintained

with features such as hot spare/hot swap, hot plug,

automatic rebuild and dynamic sector repair.

Managing the RAID installation is simple with 3ware 

Disk Manager (3DM

®

), CLI, S.M.A.R.T. disk monitoring 

and an integrated BIOS configuration utility. 3ware

Disk Manager software is a browser-based manage-

ment utility for easy local and remote management

of arrays. (Windows and Linux only).

1

2-port controllers support RAID levels 0, 1, and JBOD

2

Hot-spare not available on 2-port controllers

SATA — The Revolution in Storage

Serial ATA incorporates significant technical 

enhancements over traditional ATA making it

ideal for RAID implementations. Along with 

several configuration benefits, SATA technology

improves data transmission through a point-to-

point topology, which eliminates bus sharing

thereby delivering a full 1.5Gb/s bandwidth 

to each drive. In order to optimize performance

in this point-to-point topology however, a switch

is required. 3ware is at the forefront of SATA

technology with the only switched fabric 

architecture — StorSwitch. StorSwitch allows the

controller to simultaneously communicate with

all drives, scaling linearly as more drives are

added, resulting in the highest possible storage

subsystem performance.

• Supports up to 12, 8, 4, or 2 

Serial ATA drives on a single PCI

card, enabling up to 3 terabytes 

of storage on a half-length card

(dependent on drive capacity)

• StorSwitch switched architecture

delivers the full performance 

benefit of Serial ATA’s point-to-

point architecture up to 

1.5Gb/sec per port

• On-board processor provides 

true hardware-based RAID and

intelligent drive management 

functions

• RAID 0, 1, 10, 5 and JBOD 

support

1

• 64-bit/66MHz PCI compliant

• BIOS set up utility and 3ware 

Disk Management (3DM

®

) 

web-based management software

• Bootable array support for greater

system fault tolerance

• Hot-swap and hot-spare features

for data availability

2

• Windows

®

, Linux

®

and FreeBSD

operating system support

Escalade

®

8506 SERIES

Serial ATA RAID Controller

Whether the challenge is increasing storage capacity or controlling costs, one technology —

Serial ATA (SATA) — gives IT professionals what they need to accomplish both goals.

The 3ware Escalade 8506 series delivers SATA RAID controllers that answer the call.

3ware is the proven leader in SATA solutions providing the highest levels of performance,

capacity, availability and reliability through its patented StorSwitch

™

architecture.

Escalade

KEY

PR

ODUCT

FEA

TURES

8506 SERIES

3ware SATA RAID

Controller

StorSwitch

HARD

DRIVE

HARD

DRIVE

HARD

DRIVE

HARD

DRIVE

UP TO

1.5Gb/sec

PER

PORT