SAS Over SCSI; Supermicro Enables SES2 and ZCR on Complete Serial Attached SCSI Server Solutions

Business Wire, April 3, 2006

SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Supermicro Computer, Inc., a leading company that produces high-quality serverboards, chassis and servers, is the first major server vendor to deliver SCSI Enclosure Services 2 (SES2) for enclosure management and zero-channel RAID (ZCR) on SAS server and storage solutions. SES2 alerts users about drive, temperature and fan failures with an audible alarm, disk failure LEDs and a fan failure LED. Enabling SES2 features has significantly enhanced Supermicro's industry-leading line of SAS-optimized solutions. Additionally, with fully functional RAID capability including RAID 5, 10 and 50, the case for migrating to SAS has never been stronger or more straightforward.

"Our SAS ramp up is increasing sharply, and we believe that SAS product sales will surpass SCSI within 12 months. With these mature SES2 and ZCR features, our customers are empowered with worry-free storage management capabilities and have an excellent opportunity to gain an edge against branded vendors by delivering truly optimized SAS storage solutions," said Charles Liang, president and CEO at Supermicro. "These new SES2 and ZCR features further solidify our first-to-market position as pioneers of Serial Attached SCSI technology and provide our customer base with the best technology. Now, our server suppliers can assist their customers to transition seamlessly to the future of storage technology today."

As the evolutionary replacement for parallel SCSI, momentum toward SAS is strong. It is driven by technological advantages including more than quadrupling SCSI bandwidth for substantial performance gains and the ability to scale to up to 128 SAS devices on a single controller, compared with 16 for parallel SCSI. Even more important is the ability to mix high-performance SAS and low-cost SATA drives on the same backplane, which is providing unprecedented flexibility. The ability to mix the two technologies is not only making server and storage subsystems easier to build and use, but it also makes them more cost-effective than traditional SCSI solutions.

Supermicro SAS solutions are powered by the Adaptec(R) AIC-9410 SAS ASIC, delivering unprecedented (4.8 gigabyte/second) performance with enhanced RAID capabilities through eight ports. When combined with the optional All-in-One Zero Channel RAID card, the solution will provide unprecedented storage flexibility for either SAS or cost-effective SATA. Targeted at performance-oriented server storage applications, these solutions provide customers with highly scalable and reliable solutions that leverage the cost and design benefits offered by SAS and SATA hard disk drives.

"Combining the new All-in-One Zero Channel RAID card with SES2-enabled Supermicro SAS solutions delivers a robust end-to-end solution for the SAS and SATA system integrator markets," said Tim Connolly, vice president of marketing for the Data Protection Solutions group at Adaptec. "Supermicro and Adaptec have consistently been at the forefront in SAS product development, and we are very excited to bring these new solutions to market."

Supermicro currently produces a full line of SAS-powered solutions. The SuperServer 6014P-32R, for example, features SES2 SAS technology and supports two Dual-Core processors. This 1U server combines hot-swappable 700-watt redundant power with support for three expansion cards, four hot-swap SAS or SATA hard drives, floppy, DVD-ROM, and four 4cm heavy-duty counter-rotating fans with optimal fan speed control. The 6014P-32R provides the ultimate in availability while maximizing expansion, storage capacity, and thermal control. Its eight DIMM slots support up to 16GB of DDRII-400 memory, and its Adaptec(R) 9410W ASIC supports SAS drives at 3 Gb/second. Along with two universal slots that support both PCI-X-133 and PCI-Express x8 cards, the 6014P-32R also supports a 1U IPMI 2.0 slot for server management with an optional 3rd LAN port.

The feature-rich 6014P-32R is just one of Supermicro's many solutions optimized for both SAS drives and dual-core processors. Currently available Supermicro SAS solutions include:

SAS Motherboards
----------------
Super X6DH3-G2: For high-performance 2U, 3U, 4U and tower servers
Super X6DA3-G2: For SAS/SATA workstations
Super X6DHP-3G2: For high-availability redundant 1U servers
Super X6DHR-3G2: For high-performance 1U servers

SAS SuperServers
----------------
SuperServer 6014H-32: Performance 1U server with 4 HD and 8 DDRII
 DIMM slots
SuperServer 6014P-32R: Redundant power 1U server with 4 HD and 3rd
 LAN option
SuperServer 7044H-32R: 4U/Tower server with 8 HD & 100% cooling
 redundancy

SAS Chassis
-----------
SC813TQ-500: 1U chassis with 4 SAS/SATA and SES2 plus ZCR support
SC823TQ-R500LP: Red. 2U, 6 SAS/SATA with SES2/ZCR & 7 LP expansion
 slots
SC823TQ-R500RC: Red. 2U, 6 SAS/SATA with SES2/ZCR & 3 FF expansion
 slots
SC743TQ-R760: 4U/tower chassis with 8 SAS/SATA and SES2 plus ZCR
 support

SAS JBOD Chassis
----------------
SC942i Series: Tower/4U houses up to four M28E1/E2 mobile racks
 (32 2.5" drives)
SC933E1: 3U with 15 hot-swap 3.5" SAS/SATA drive trays and one
 expander
SC933E2: 3U with 15 hot-swap 3.5" SAS/SATA drive trays and two
 expanders
SC836E1: 3U with 16 hot-swap 3.5" SAS/SATA drive trays and one
 expander
SC836E2: 3U with 16 hot-swap 3.5" SAS/SATA drive trays and two
 expanders

SAS Mobile Racks
----------------
M28E1: 8 hot-swap 2.5" SAS/SATA drive trays with one expander;
 fits in two 5.25" bays
M28E2: 8 hot-swap 2.5" SAS/SATA drive trays with 2 expanders; fits
 in two 5.25" bays
M28T/TS: 8 hot-swap 2.5" SAS/SATA drive trays with SES2 (TS only)
 in two 5.25" bays
M14T/TS: 4 hot-swap 2.5" SAS/SATA drive trays occupies one 5.25"
 bay with SES2 (TS)
M35T-1/TQ: 5 hot-swap 3.5" SAS/SATA drive trays occupies 3 5.25"
 bays w/SES2 (TQ)

All-in-One (SAS/SATA/SCSI) Zero-Channel RAID Cards
--------------------------------------------------
AOC-LPZCR2: 600MHz low-profile ZCR card with 256MB onboard ECC DDR
 memory
AOC-LPZCR1: 400MHz low-profile ZCR card with RAID 0, 1, 10, 5,
 JBOD & 50(a)
AOC-SOZCR1: 400MHz Socket DIMM ZCR card with RAID 0, 1, 10, 5,
 JBOD & 50(a)
(a) RAID 50 is SAS and SATA modes only