Areca 1880 series posted

[SteveRo]

From my 1231ML-4G - 4GB stick that came with the controller -

9 chips on each side - each chip says -

ELPIDA JAPAN
E2108ABSE-6E-E
08230W191

The pcb is marked - D2U72G

searching google - looks like it might be 667mhz memory.

[Computurd]

@acenz-nope, no serious tweaks or anything like that. that was actually ran with the browser/media player/email open, it is a straight cache blast. I am using the previous firmware for the card, not the current firmware. current firmware doesnt work with any evga brand mobos that i am aware of. pcie is even at 100. my rig is basically in stock mode right now, which is 4.4 on i7 920.

it is crystaldiskmark30TP1.... a technical preview. (BETA).
it has the same results though, just more fields.

[Computurd]

Nice pic Steve, thanks for posting it btw.
They still havent released the ram specifications outside of what was already given, so i pulled the trigger on the ram i found at newegg..gonna risk it.

My controller should be here wednesday at the latest. they are due in monday, and 2 day shipping. If it doesnt come in until tuesday they will overnight it free. that is a hell of a deal, so i switched my order to acemicro.

I found out from a guy over at another forum that works for an areca distributor that the areca is shipping with a PowerPC ROC. so they definitely arent going with the Marvell, but he wont reveal why, NDA and such. I am waiting for a reply as to what model # etc of the powerpc, but it is kind of a moot point, i will find out shortly.

what is interesting though is he stated this :

Well, the first batch of 1880 we are receiving will most likely come with PowerPC chipset.

'most likely'??? wondering if its a good source or not.

EDIT:


Power PC 440 roc.

[Nizzen]

I red that on harddorum.com. It is not going to happend. It think it was a early ES model with Powerpc roc

[Nizzen]

Areca 1880ix - 24 has arrived. Picking it up on the local store on monday

[SteveRo]

Alright - Mr Nizzen
Looks like you might be 1st!
Can't wait to see the benches!

[Computurd]

awesome nizzen!
there is someone else with that type of chip on their raid cards....fits the exact same specs as the ppc440
LSI2108.
I think it has the lsi ROC on it. LSI sells it to intel, so why not areca. From another at [H] (aaronspink)

Which means they are using an LSI2108! It fits perfectly with everything so far, 800 Mhz PPC, memory specifications, cache sizes, etc. Marvell are all arm based, and PMC is MIPS. This would also explain why they don't necessarily want to identify the ROC as well.

i was thinking the same thing, but wasnt sure. very interesting. Mr. Nizzen we need to know the ROC
would you mind pulling the HS off of her to find out?

[DeViTTo]

Just ordered one a Areca 1880i 8 port hope its good

[Computurd]

what drives are you going to use with it devitto? and nizzen what drives are you going to use, or are you still NDA?

[DeViTTo]

Only have 2 intel G1's but looking to go for p300 I wish, or Vertex2, C300 or next gen Intel G3.
I was looking into getting a dedicated card to replace my Scsi Raid controller. Sort of impulse buy today really I think scsi has had it and well I want to be ahead a little with sata now, but the 4k benches I have seen worry me I hope they have good drivers available now very little around on the net about this card. Just really purchasing off the back of the Areca name it seemed I was always chasing their results with my old LSi.

[SteveRo]

Mr. DeVitto - please post back benches, thanks!

[Nizzen]

Nice pic Steve, thanks for posting it btw.
They still havent released the ram specifications outside of what was already given, so i pulled the trigger on the ram i found at newegg..gonna risk it.

My controller should be here wednesday at the latest. they are due in monday, and 2 day shipping. If it doesnt come in until tuesday they will overnight it free. that is a hell of a deal, so i switched my order to acemicro.

I found out from a guy over at another forum that works for an areca distributor that the areca is shipping with a PowerPC ROC. so they definitely arent going with the Marvell, but he wont reveal why, NDA and such. I am waiting for a reply as to what model # etc of the powerpc, but it is kind of a moot point, i will find out shortly.

what is interesting though is he stated this :



'most likely'??? wondering if its a good source or not.

EDIT:


Power PC 440 roc.

This is from the 1880 manual from areca.com



Will check if this is right tomorrow!

LOL

Someone posted this as a leak

[DeViTTo]

Mr. DeVitto - please post back benches, thanks!

I'll try just took my intels out of raid secure erased them and took hdtach with out partition on each drive results. then placed back in raid on ICh10 with partition to get comparison with atto bench. So I have a base mark will see when this card arrives

[Computurd]

This is from the 1880 manual from areca.com

Yeah, i was the one who found it in their manual, copy/paste. I sure didnt claim it was a 'leak', the guy who is supposedly working for areca distributor is over at [H] and he didnt post it. As far as i know i am the only to have posted it at this point. Nowhere in any forum i post in will you see me claim it as a leak, even though re-reading what i posted i didnt specify where i found it. When the guy claimed the ROC was a PPC i perused the manual again looking to confirm or deny, hence the words: EDIT: above the picture, i added that after i had made the initial post. The only person with 'inside' knowledge has posted over at [h] where everyone can see it, and i questioned his reliability, that is a big difference from claiming he was leaking info to me

[Nizzen]

Yeah, i was the one who found it in their manual, copy/paste. I sure didnt claim it was a 'leak', the guy who is supposedly working for areca distributor is over at [H] and he didnt post it. As far as i know i am the only to have posted it at this point. Nowhere in any forum i post in will you see me claim it as a leak, even though re-reading what i posted i didnt specify where i found it. When the guy claimed the ROC was a PPC i perused the manual again looking to confirm or deny, hence the words: EDIT: above the picture, i added that after i had made the initial post. The only person with 'inside' knowledge has posted over at [h] where everyone can see it, and i questioned his reliability, that is a big difference from claiming he was leaking info to me

Sorry, I missunderstood.

I am a silly Norwegian

[Computurd]

its cool, no worries

You Norwegians know your stuff (especially storage!)

cant wait to see your results with the 1880! didnt realize you had a 980x, fearsome combo! gah i need one...

[Serra]

I just spoke with some friends, looks like I have a ARC-1880ix-12 on its way! Can't wait to give it a spin.

I would actually be very pleased if it turned out to have an LSI chip in it myself. I mean, competition is great and I would love to see something faster come out, but if it were LSI based it would mean that the firmware should be mature already... really it's a win/win situation. Can't wait to see how this all turns out!

[Computurd]

yes that is very true...it would not take as long to mature...and it would have the benefit of the uber cache. a nail-biter for sure! nizzen...any word yet?

[Computurd]

well i guess it is official for sure now....no leaked info here, straight from areca

To: sales@areca.com.tw
Sent: Sunday, August 22, 2010 3:34 AM
Subject: Sale Inquiry

Can you inform me of the model number/name of the ROC on the 1880 series? an 800 mhz roc is a bit ambiguous. I need to know for a reliability assessment.

Thank you


Hi,

We use the PPC architecture ROC-From LSI 2108 and 2116.
Areca has well experienced the external RAID controller ARC-8060 from AMCC 440SP PPC SOC since 2007.


Regards
Billion Wu

I have never heard of the lsi 2116, but it is an external storage chip.




EDIT: i have been using the newest areca for over a year LOL unbelievable.

[Anvil]

LOL,
I've just ordered an "9260-16i4e"

I wonder if they'll support FastPath/CacheCade.

I agree with Serra, this should be a win/win situation

Now, the hunt for that 4GB ECC chip.

[Serra]

well i guess it is official for sure now....no leaked info here, straight from areca

I have never heard of the lsi 2116, but it is an external storage chip.

EDIT: i have been using the newest areca for over a year LOL unbelievable.

You have to appreciate Areca's response time. Considering the time differential that was a pretty quick reply.

It's not an unexpected response at all though... previous Areca's used Intel tech, but Intel is skipping out on this generation. I figured Areca would wind up on LSI's, though they were quiet enough about it that I'll admit I was second-guessing myself and wondering if they pulled a new chip manufacturer from somewhere.


I found this info on the 2116:

The new LSISAS2116 is the industry’s first single-chip, 16-port SAS storage processor for external storage systems. It integrates a PowerPC® application processor, x8 PCI Express® 2.0 with root complex, support for 8GB of 800MHz DDR2 memory, and 16 ports of 6Gb/s SAS to provide users with enterprise-class performance and features.

Link

So it's a single-chip solution which another PDF showed to have just slightly less than twice the power consumption of 2x 2108's. I'm suspecting that it's really just two slightly retooled 2108's squeezed onto one chip due to the power requirement/ease of design, but how that works I'm not sure (eg. one half services ports 1-8, the other 9-16?).

But yeah, it looks like the 4GB of cache is what's going to be setting Areca apart from the others performance-wise right now. I only wonder what models have the 2116's... eg. if it turns out they use them on most of the line, is there actually the possibility to use 8GB of cache or will they also just use it on a single external drive product?

[Nizzen]

One small teezer:

only one 128gb C300



Are some one ready for 8 c300?

[Anvil]

Hmmm
Great Nizzen, this is what we've been waiting for.

Benched as a boot drive and still the result is beyond expectations!

Keep them coming, raid as many drives as you've got

edit:
Did it come with 1GB cache or 512MB, the docs are a bit confusing wrt cache on the 12-16-24.

[Nizzen]

Hmmm
Great Nizzen, this is what we've been waiting for.

Benched as a boot drive and still the result is beyond expectations!

Keep them coming, raid as many drives as you've got

edit:
Did it come with 1GB cache or 512MB, the docs are a bit confusing wrt cache on the 12-16-24.

It did arrive with 1gb. 4gb is coming next week from Areca. They said so




HDD Test Suite 168743

[Anvil]

HDD Test Suite 168743

There's no chance in .... to get close to that figure using the 9260.

I think we have a new champion...