New Areca SATA raid adapter! Areca ARC-1264il-12/16

[Nizzen]

Maybe this have even lower latency than Areca 1880/1882 :D
We all know

Areca ARC-1264il-12/16 PCIe 2.0 to SATA lll RAID Adapter is Now Available for Sale

We all know how legendary the ARC-1231Ml and 1261Ml was in term of low latency compared to other brands :up:
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Taipei, Taiwan , April 10, 2013 - Areca Technology Corporation (ARECA), a leading provider of internal RAID controllers, external RAID controllers and PCIe RAID adapters with RAID 6 inside, today announced the general availability and shipping of its low profile ARC-1264il-12/16 PCIe 2.0 to SATA lll RAID adapters that one of RAID adapters is back by popular demand on its previous version ARC-1231Ml and 1261Ml SATA RAID adapter.

ARC-1264il-12/16 RAID adapters are a cost-effective RAID storage solution that combines low-cost SATA lll and port multiplier chips with low latency for internal storage systems. It is aimed at high-availability and capacity oriented applications more than 8 HDDs, such as security systems, surveillance, multimedia content generation, large-volume data capturing, mail servers and entry-level database systems. Its performance is limited by the port multiplier chip numbers on the controller. Applications will get the best performance when you attach the max number HDDs on the RAID adapter or rearrange the HDD position to usemax port multiplier chips.

ARC-1264il-12/16 internal PCIe 2.0 host RAID adapters are based on the same RAID kernel of field-proven internal/external RAID controller and same device driver architecture with widely used 3Gb/s and6Gb/s SAS/SATA RAID adapters. The new RAID adapters are designed to support better compatible with SATA HDD computing applications. They support single volume greater than 2TB via 64-bit LBAs on one adapter. The Areca series controllers are designed to protect the customer's investment in RAID.

The new Areca ARC-1264il-12/16 series adapters are immediately available through a worldwide network of distributors, integrators and VARs.

http://www.areca.com.tw/news/2013/0410_2013.htm

[Computurd]

Awesome find Nizzen!

[mobilenvidia]

Datasheet over here (http://www.computex.biz/PhotoPool2/201304/201304111545179231.pdf)
Also includes the 1284MI-24

[Andreas]

PCIe 2.0 x8 means 3,6 -3,8 GB/sec transfer rate over the PCI bus, which 8 fast SATA III SSDs can saturate.
For high bandwidth streaming applications with more than 8 SSDs a PCI 3.0 interface is recommended.

[tiro_uspsss]

does it support SAS drives?

[Nizzen]

does it support SAS drives?
No, that is why it is called SATA adapter LOL :p:

SAS support Sata, but SATA dows not support SAS

[Computurd]

without the SAS/SATA conversion that should be blazing fast.

[Kain665]

What ROC does it have on it? Custom Areca? Or LSI as usual?

[Computurd]

Lets find out :) this has me intrigued!

[mobilenvidia]

I don't think its LSI as it mentions ARM for IO processing
LSI = Custom PowerPC
LSI would also mean SAS2008 (PCIe Gen2) = OLD and done a gazillion times elsewhere.

Might be an Android Powered controller you can also make calls on :D


Controller Architecture
• ARM storage I/O processor
• 1GB on-board SDRAM with ECC
• PCIe 2.0 x8 lanes host interface
• ARC-1264il-12/16 supports up to 12/16 x 6Gb/s SATA HDDs
• ARC-1284Ml-24 supports up to 24 x 6Gb/s SATA HDDs
• Multi-adapter support for large storage requirements
• BIOS boot support for greater fault tolerance
• BIOS PnP (plug and play) and BBS (BIOS boot specification
support
• Support EFI BIOS for Mac Pro
• NVRAM for RAID event & transaction log
• Redundant flash image for controller availability
• Battery Backup Module (BBM) ready (Optional)
• RoHS compliant

[Computurd]

Whatever it is I want to play with it :)

http://www.computex.biz/PhotoPool2/201304/201304111545179231.pdf

[mobilenvidia]

Areca product page http://www.areca.com.tw/products/pcie341.htm

Notice the pcie341.htm does this mean it's a revamped Intel IOP 341 with PCIe Gen2 and SATA III ?
If it is, then terrible RAID will follow.

Front
http://www.areca.com.tw/support/photo/ARC-1264il.jpg

Back
http://www.areca.com.tw/support/photo/ARC-1264il_16rearbc.jpg

Manual http://www.areca.us//support/download/RaidCards/Documents/Manual_Spec/ARC12x4_manual.zip

[Kain665]

Ooh yes, I'm sure they'll offer an optional touchscreen, and maybe a copy of their angry birds disk benchmark later down the line.

I'll have one in by the end of the month, I'll let you guys know.

[Computurd]

Well surprisingly enough it is a Marvell. Here is the datasheet:
http://www.marvell.com/storage/system-solutions/sas-controllers/assets/Marvell-88RC9548-80-PB.pdf
There was a thermal pad instead of adhesive, and there are also offset connectors, two on either side of the board. I will be throwing an uber SSD array on these shortly.

http://i517.photobucket.com/albums/u332/paullie1/IMG_8640.jpg (http://s517.photobucket.com/user/paullie1/media/IMG_8640.jpg.html)
http://i517.photobucket.com/albums/u332/paullie1/IMG_8641.jpg (http://s517.photobucket.com/user/paullie1/media/IMG_8641.jpg.html)
http://i517.photobucket.com/albums/u332/paullie1/IMG_8644.jpg (http://s517.photobucket.com/user/paullie1/media/IMG_8644.jpg.html)

[Nizzen]

pleace compare latency with arc 1880/1882 :)

[Kain665]

If done correctly, that 9548 should play very well with SSDs. Hopefully their driver is up to par, I recommend testing on an X79 ;)

[mobilenvidia]

Marvell chipset....phew....but

9548 chipset = 4 port SATA
So to get to 16 ports there are I take it 4x expanders one for each SFF8087 port.
The expanders will add latency

Looking forward to your uber thrashing of this controller Paul.

[Computurd]

Typically we've seen some big bulky expanders that require heat sinks in the past with the Areca's, so the lack of any large hardware on there surprised me. There are two small Marvell chips to the aft of the card, which should be some type of expanders. I'll send out an email and we will see if we can get some specifics, the part#'s on these chips are very very small, if nothing else i can do a high res and blow it up.

[Kain665]

How's it coming?

[chispy]

Hola Computurd :) , any updates on this raid card testing ? Anxiously awaiting your results :up:

[Nizzen]

Well surprisingly enough it is a Marvell. Here is the datasheet:
http://www.marvell.com/storage/system-solutions/sas-controllers/assets/Marvell-88RC9548-80-PB.pdf
There was a thermal pad instead of adhesive, and there are also offset connectors, two on either side of the board. I will be throwing an uber SSD array on these shortly.



Tired of waiting... Send it to me in Norway, then I can test it for you :) I have enough ssds :D

[lutjens]

Hola Computurd :) , any updates on this raid card testing ? Anxiously awaiting your results :up:

Same here...I'm anxiously wondering if ol' Betsy here (my 9265-8i) has a date with my spare parts shelf...:)

[chispy]

Im just waiting to see the numbers as I am looking to buy me a new Raid Card , will wait a few more days for results if no results are posted I will go ahead with Plan B. I hope computurd is ok , have not seen him around in a while.

[Computurd]

I am fine, just swamped with work. Hopefully by saturday i can post something :)

[Nizzen]

I do not know how slow the USA is, but here in Norway it is funday Monday :p:

[ChrisRoad]

There was the Evo weekend, so I don't know how much time there is to run some benchmarks, between all these Shoryukens and Hadoukens ;)

[shat]

I have P/N: ARC-1264IL-12

First, I am new to the forum, but have been a lurker for quite a bit. Finally registered today. I have not had the opportunity to bench this card versus some of the other cards and storage systems I have at the office. However, I am concerned that it has been nearly 5 hours and I am still sitting at 0.0% initialization.

Once this RAID6 array is online, I will know how it compares with other models. (12) WD Red 3TB drives in RAID 6.

[mobilenvidia]

You could setup the ARRAY for testing and not initialise it
Do some benchies then setup again and initialise, so we don't have to wait 2 weeks ;)

[Nizzen]

If this controller was IMBA, there would be ssd benchmarks already ;)

Waiting for the next Areca sas controller with 8GB? cache :yepp:

[chispy]

Waiting for the next Areca sas controller with 8GB? cache :yepp:

+1 This ^^

[billdavis]

I take it that this card sucks!