NEC SA2500 User Manual - Promise Fasttrack Sx4100
User Guide
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www.nec-computers.com
Promise FastTrack SX4100
Highlights
■ Four-port Serial ATA RAID controller with 1.5Gb/s per channel
■ Support for RAID levels 0, 1, 10, 5 and JBOD
■ Next generation RAID Engine, with multiple logical drive support
■ Low-profile form factor, ideal for 1U/2U systems
■ User friendly Web-based Promise Array Management Software (WebPAM™)
■ PerfectRAID™ technology for robust error handling and recovery of fatal, media
and disk errors
■ 32-Bit/66MHz PCI 2.2 interface
■ Online array expansion and RAID level migration to add capacity as needed
■ Supports hot swap of failed drives
■ Automatic/manual rebuild of hot spare drive
■ 64MB of onboard ECC cache memory
The Price/Performance Leader
For companies running popular applications like web services, file/email servers, video
streaming, NAS storage and nearline storage, the FastTrak SX4100 opens the world of
professional RAID 5 performance and data protection and combines it with cost-
effective Serial ATA (SATA) drives for the ultimate internal storage solution.
Improved RAS Functions with Serial ATA Drives
Designed specifically for Serial ATA RAID, the FastTrak SX4100 incorporates highly
desired features that are ideally suited for SATA storage demands and improving
overall RAS (Reliability, Availability and Serviceability).
In addition to an improved RAID algorithm, among the enhancements are multiple
logical drive support, Media Patrol™ and read check table. Equipped with the new
Promise Array Manager (WebPAM™) software, FastTrak SX4100 is extremely easy
to manage through a web graphical user interface.
Hardware-Assisted RAID 5 Architecture
RAID 5 implementation involves striping data and parity information (XOR) across the
storage array. Since those parity calculations are so processor-intensive, RAID 5
controllers traditionally require a dedicated CPU to perform the XOR calculations and
manage the array.
Instead of adding a costly CPU to the controller, Promise's FastTrak SX4100 uses an
integrated XOR engine for parity calculations, delivering extraordinary performance at
a dramatically lower price. This approach takes advantage of today's ultra-powerful PC
CPUs to manage the array and outperform traditional RAID 5 solutions.