Microsemi Introduces Smart HBAs & RAID Adapters

Today @MicrosemiCorporation announced the production of its new Smart Storage SAS/SATA adapters for data centers. The new portfolio, which includes the Microsemi Adaptec HBA 1100 family, SmartHBA 2100 family and SmartRAID 3100 family, is based on the company’s latest 28nm SmartIOC 2100 and SmartROC 3100 storage controller integrated circuits (ICs). These new adapters aim to deliver high performance, low power, reliability and feature-rich solutions tailored to a variety of server storage applications, including software-defined storage (SDS), cold storage and enterprise applications.  Microsemi states that its new Smart Storage solutions can be used in any server storage application with 12 Gbps SAS or 6 Gbps SATA hard disk drives (HDDs) or solid state drives (SSDs). While PCIe and NVMe interface are becoming more and more common, SAS and SATA will most likely remain the dominant interface for some time. The Smart Storage solutions have been optimized to pull the best benefits out of both SSDs (higher performance) and HDDs (power-optimized for colder storage). And the two different types of technologies have features that fit better to their usage.  The HBA 1100 is optimized for SDS, cold storage and raw high-performance connectivity. Its features include: Adapters with up to 24 ports using 28nm SAS/SATA-optimized silicon, offering an optimal power profile for the target applications Support for host-managed and host-aware shingled magnetic recording (SMR) drives Broad operating system (OS) driver support, including inbox driver support Performance of up to 1.7 million input/output operations per second (IOPS)  Building off of the benefits of the HBA 1100, the SmartHBA 2100 adds the option of basic hardware RAID. The 2100 is built for SDS applications that need RAID for boot drive or SMB applications. Benefits include: Basic RAID without compromising on the requirement for a fully featured and functional HBA, which is required for multi-path IO and SDS applications Mixed mode enables drives to be independently configured as raw drives or as part of a logical volume True hardware RAID for RAID 0,1,10 and RAID 5 Industry’s only basic RAID solution with more than eight ports  The SmartRAID 3100 family offers the most in functionality, acceleration through caching and the highest data availability for the most demanding enterprise storage applications. It’s features include: Adapters with up to 24 ports using 28nm SAS/SATA-optimized silicon, offering an optimal power profile for the target applications Zero Maintenance Cache Protection (ZMCP) with a cache size of up to 4GB and integrated cache backup circuitry for optimal cost, thermal performance and operating efficiency Board options without cache backup maxCache 4.0 included on all adapters with up to ~2TB SSD cache Roadmap to maxCrypto controller-based encryption Availability Microsemi's Unified Smart Storage Stack, as well as the fourth generation SmartRAID 3100, SmartHBA 2100 and HBA 1100 series board level product families, are available now.

http://www.storagereview.com/microsemi_introduces_smart_hbas_raid_adapters

News Bits: Excelero, Broadcom, E8, Intel, Microsemi, Attala, Mellanox, NodeSource, AppDynamics, & More

This week’s News Bits we look at a number of small announcements, small in terms of the content not the impact they have. #Excelero ’s #NVMesh is validated on #Broadcom #NetXtreme #BCM57414 NIC. E8’s X24 leverages #Intel #Optane SSDs. #Attala and #Microsemi partner on industry’s first #NVMeF compliant with #DMTF #Redfish and #SNIA #Swordfish. #NodeSource integrates with #AppDynamics. #WekaIO and Intel demo native scale-out NVMe-oF at FMS. Longsys launches world’s smallest SSD at FMS. Cloudistics releases version 3.2. Marvell ships over 50 million 88SS1074 SATA SSD controllers in 18 months. Cavium supports FC-NVMe standard. Excelero’s NVMesh Is Validated On Broadcom NetXtreme BCM57414 NIC

http://www.storagereview.com/news_bits_excelero_broadcom_e8_intel_microsemi_attala_mellanox_nodesource_appdynamics_more

Microsemi Announces New Switchtec PAX Advanced Fabric PCIe Switch to Accelerate Evolution of Hyperconverged Systems to Composable/Disaggregated Infrastructures

ALISO VIEJO, Calif., Aug. 3, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- #Microsemi Corporation (Nasdaq: MSCC), a leading provider of semiconductor solutions differentiated by power, security, reliability and performance, today announced the availability of its #Switchtec #PAX advanced fabric Gen3 PCIe switch providing high-performance fabric connectivity for scalable, multi-host systems and just a bunch of flash (JBOF) supporting single root input/output (I/O) virtualization (SR-IOV), NVMe and multi-function endpoints. The new device will be showcased in Microsemi's booth #213 at the Flash Memory Summit Aug. 8-10, 2017. Hyperconverged systems are evolving towards composable/disaggregated infrastructures (C/DI) such as rack scale architecture to meet the rapidly changing demands on resources and storage capacity of next-generation applications. PAX advanced fabric PCIe switches provide a scalable, low latency and cost-effective solution to the disaggregation of computing, networking, graphics processing units (GPUs) and storage resources. These PAX PCIe switches, which are flexibly interconnected with configurable high-speed fabric links, virtualize PCIe domains and SR-IOV endpoints. System development is simplified through a fabric application programming interface (API) and the ability to utilize off-the-shelf NVMe host drivers, significantly reducing time-to-market for complex multi-host systems. "As we work closely with industry leaders, it became clear there's demand for Microsemi to expand our PCIe switch portfolio to support next-generation disaggregated architectures," said Derek Dicker, vice president and business unit manager for performance storage at Microsemi. "Our PAX advanced fabric PCIe switch is pin-compatible to our PSX storage and PFX fanout PCIe switches, providing our customers a simple upgrade path to building SR-IOV-enabled and composable disaggregated systems while supporting our ability to gain market share." According to market research firm IDC's February report titled, "Composable/Disaggregated Infrastructure (C/DI)—Addressable Market Opportunity," the total worldwide addressable opportunity for vendors with C/DI is $34.5 billion in 2017. The firm also expects this opportunity will grow at a modest compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 7.4 percent and reach $45 billion in 2020. Microsemi's Switchtec PAX advanced fabric PCIe switch is well-aligned to these growth trends, as it enables customers to leverage the device for the development of next-generation C/DIs. Microsemi's Switchtec PAX family comprises switches from 96 lanes to 24 lanes, providing: High-performance PCIe fabric connectivity overcoming the limitations of the PCIe Specification for rack scale multi-host systems Multi-host sharing of SR-IOV and multifunction endpoints Virtualization of PCIe domains and SR-IOV NVMe solid state drives (SSDs) Software development kit (SDK) for virtualization of other SR-IOV endpoints, and for enclosure management The most flexible port bifurcation in the industry, from x2 to x16 lanes per port The highest port density, with up to 48 ports Advanced error reporting Error containment for surprise-plug and unplug to prevent system crashes Advanced diagnostics and debug features to identify, diagnose and fix problems Separate Refclk Independent SSC (SRIS) for cabled PCIe and lower cost system designs

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/microsemi-announces-new-switchtec-pax-advanced-fabric-pcie-switch-to-accelerate-evolution-of-hyperconverged-systems-to-composabledisaggregated-infrastructures-300498856.html