[NTLUG:Discuss] Re: compression and Filesystem question -- true hardware/intelligent ATA RAID

[Stuart Johnston]

Bryan J. Smith wrote:
> Richard Geoffrion wrote:  
> 
>>I'll have to look into whether or not the 3Ware cards support
>>host-swapping. 
> 
> 
> Yes.  3Ware Escalades are _true_intelligent_ ATA RAID cards. 
> 
> They hide the entire volume from the OS, unlike those "trick BIOS" cards
> where the OS still sees the "raw" ATA drives until a "driver" loads.
> 
> 
> o  Intelligent (true hardware) ATA RAID
> 
> The _only_ intelligent ATA RAID cards I know of are:
> - 3Ware Escalade 5000/6000 (32-bit ASIC, 0.25-0.5MB SRAM)
> - 3Ware Escalade 7000/8000 (64-bit ASIC, 1-4MB SRAM)
> - 3Ware Escalade 9000 (64-bit ASIC, 4MB SRAM, up to 128MB+? SDRAM)
> - Adaptec 2400A/2800A (32-bit i960 microcontroller, up to 128MB+? SDRAM)
> - Promise _Super_Trak (32-bit i960 microcontroller, up to 128MB+? SDRAM)

Do you know anything about the LSI MegaRAID SATA cards?  I did find one 
page saying that the 4 and 6 port cards are true hardware while the 2 
port is based on a Silicon Image controller.

http://www.linuxmafia.com/faq/Hardware/sata.html

penguincomputing.com sells servers with LSI hardware RAID which I 
occasionally drool over but have never had the chance to buy.