PROMISE FASTTRAK SX4000

Cost-Effective, High-Performance ATA RAID 5 Solution from the Worldwide Leader in ATA RAID Technology

"This is one fantastic card for the money! The FastTrak SX4000 will help you make an easy move to RAID with massive storage and redundancy for far less money than the SCSI alternative." --ClubOverclocker

• Four-channel ATA RAID controller with support for up to four Ultra ATA/133 drives
• 32-Bit/66MHz PCI 2.2 interface
• Support for RAID level 0, 1, 10, 5 and JBOD
• Online array expansion and RAID level migration to add capacity on the fly
• Supports hot swap of failed drives with SuperSwap 1000
• Automatic/manual rebuild of hot spare drive
• PerfectRAID(TM) technology for robust error handling and recovery of fatal, media and disk errors 
• Variable stripe block size support enables optimization for diverse application requirements
• Supports up to 256MB of SDRAM memory 
• Seamless upgrade to Promise's external storage solutions

The FastTrak SX4000 Overview
The FastTrak SX4000 ATA RAID PCI adapter delivers industry-leading RAID 5 performance at an unprecedented performance-to-price ratio. For companies running popular applications like web services, file/email servers, audio/video streaming and nearline storage, the FastTrak SX4000 opens the world of professional RAID 5 performance and data protection and combines it with cost-effective Ultra ATA (PATA) drives for the ultimate internal storage solution. Based on OEM-proven RAID 5 technology, the FastTrak SX4000 competes with SCSI RAID 5 controllers--at one-half to one-third of the price. RAID 5 storage protection is no longer the privilege of budget-rich IT departments. 

Promise 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 SX4000 controller 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. The FastTrak SX4000 sets a new standard for RAID 5 controllers.

Sophisticated Array Monitoring Tools
Promise Array Management (PAM) software offers professional management tools in a simple-to-use, straightforward format. Array configurations, management and monitoring features are available via the windows based management and can be access locally or via the TCP/IP network remotely. Moreover, the FastTrak SX family supports industry standard SNMP so third party management application integration is simplified.

Specifications

Controller Specifications

• Four independent Ultra ATA/133 channels that support up to four drives
• Storage capacity up to 1 terabyte per controller (with four 250 GB drives)
• 32-Bit, 66 MHz PCI bus; PCI 2.2 compliant
• Promise RAID Processor with XOR engine for RAID parity calculations and memory controller for local cache memory
• Controller cache: 168-pin DIMM slot supports up to 256MB of ECC or non-ECC SDRAM memory (min. 64MB required). Memory not included.
• FRAM for RAID5 transaction log to avoid data corruption in the event of application hangs
• Built-in GPIO ports for enclosure management

RAID Levels Supported

• RAID 5 -- Striped parity on 3-4 drives, ultimate data protection, capacity and performance balance
• RAID 10 -- Data mirrored then striped across four drives, for double drive failure protection
• RAID 1 -- Mirrored pairs of drives for data protection with increased read performance
• RAID 0 -- Data striped across 2-4 drives for increased performance but no data protection
• JBOD -- Just a Bunch Of Drives: independent connected drives with no RAID interconnection

RAID Fault Tolerance and Robustness Features

• Online array expansion and RAID level migration to add capacity on the fly
• PerfectRAID(TM) technology for error handling and recovery of fatal, media and disk errors
• DRM(TM) (Drive Roaming Metadata) technology
  • Supports upgrade to any Promise storage sub-subsystem
  • Supports drive roaming to any port on the controller
  • Allows array roaming in the event of controller failure
• Support hot swap of failed drives and hot spare
• Automatic/manual rebuild of hot spare drive
• Background initialization for instant drive availability
• Background rebuild, migration and synchronization
• Error and event logging
• Variable stripe block size support to meet various application requirements
• Optimal disk utilization with gigabyte rounding
• Support for SMART capable drives
• Synchronization can be scheduled periodically for RAID array data consistency

Advanced Performance Features

• Multiple caching policy support: 
  • Write-back and write-through: Write-back for maximum write performance and write-through for data protection in the event of application freeze
  • Predictive read ahead caching based on application and data types
• Use packet commands and interrupt coalescing to minimize interrupts for better performance
• Elevator seek streamlines commands based on where data is located on the disk
• Load balancing (mirrored RAID array only)

Promise Array Management

• Creates, deletes, expands, and converts disk arrays remotely
• Array synchronization and rebuild scheduling
• Displays drive and array status
• Monitors enclosure status and provides online event logging
• E-mail notification of disk, array, controller or enclosure events (e.g. error or degrade conditions)

Operating Systems*

• Windows: Windows 2000/XP/2003
• Linux: Red Hat 8.0/9.0 and SuSE Linux
• Free BSD 4.8 (coming soon)

FastBuild  BIOS

• Array configuration utility at the BIOS level
• BIOS Boot Specification support: boot system from any array
• Flash-upgradable BIOS for future upgrades