HighPoint Launches RocketRAID 4520 512 MB DDR3

California headquartered traditional RAID controller maker HighPoint has just launched a new, dedicated SAS RAID controller card using Marvell’s Sheeva RAID-on-Chip onboard processor, on its official website.

The new card uses a Marvell 88RC9580 RAID-on-Chip processor that has a 513 MB of DDR3 decicated memory.

The new RAID card from HighPoint uses a PCI Express 2.0 x8 Host Interface and provides the user with 8 Internal 6Gb/s SAS & SATA ports and dual internal Mini-SAS connectors (SFF-8087).

The card will support up to 128 SAS HDDs using a SAS Expander, but it comes with a passive heatsink and a low-profile PCB.

HighPoint’s new RocketRAID 4520 adapter comes with support for RAID 0, 1, 5, 6, 10, 50 and the usual JBOD with RAID configuration protection.

The usual BIOS boot, staggered drive spin up, spin down idle disk, S.M.A.R.T. and NCQ support are all present and also the HighPoint RocketRAID 4520 comes with 64bit LBA support for drives with more than 2TB of storage capacity.

Marvell’s Sheeva RAID-on-chip processor is a powerful SoC that integrates an ARM core working at a high 900 Mhz frequency along with RAID 5/6 and CRC32 engines, internal SRAM and DDR3 memory interfaces optimized for advanced RAID topologies.

The chip only consumes 9 watts according to Marvell and comes in a 676-Ball FCBGA package.

The on-core cache is 512 KB and there is also an on-chip 1 MB Scratchpad.

It has support for various advanced RAID features including Dual XOR RAID 6, P+ Q + Copy, or Q + Q + Q RAID 6, and is ideal for mid-range to high-end servers.

The processor also provides support for RAID 60 although HighPoint doesn’t mention this in its press release.


Via: HighPoint Launches RocketRAID 4520 512 MB DDR3