LSI Breaks the Million IOPS Performance Barrier with Single 12Gb/s SAS RAID-on-Chip Controller

LSI® SAS ROC delivers I/O performance levels needed to unlock the full potential of flash storage and forthcoming PCI Express 3.0-based server platforms

INTEL DEVELOPER FORUM, San Francisco, Calif. - LSI Corporation (NYSE: LSI) today announced it is demonstrating its next-generation 12Gb/s SAS RAID-on-Chip (ROC) technology this week, September 13-15, at the Intel Developer Forum (IDF) in San Francisco.

The IDF demonstration showcases a single 8-port 12Gb/s SAS ROC IC achieving over 1.2 million IOPS (I/O operations per second) running small block sequential reads/writes in a PCI Express® 2.0 direct-attached storage configuration connected to eight 6Gb/s Seagate® SAS 2.5-inch hard disk drives.

Integrating the latest enhancements in SAS and PCI Express technology, as well as innovative LSI hardware acceleration engines, the LSI SAS ROC is designed to provide the I/O performance required to take full advantage of the performance benefits of enterprise-class solid-state drives (SSDs) and server platforms based on the forthcoming PCI Express 3.0 specification.

“Solid-state drive performance coupled with the approaching industry transition to PCI Express 3.0-based server platforms is driving the need for 12Gb/s SAS connectivity,” said Bill Wuertz, senior vice president and general manager, RAID Storage Division, LSI. “12Gb/s SAS will enable IT administrators to maximize their investments in existing infrastructure while meeting the storage demands of I/O-intensive applications, cloud datacenters and virtualized server environments.”

Based on LSI’s fourth-generation SAS architecture, the 12Gb/s SAS ROC delivers a 57 percent improvement in IOPS performance and a 45 percent increase in I/O throughput compared to the previous-generation 6Gb/s SAS ROC. To achieve one million IOPS using the previous-generation product would have required multiple SAS ROCs and twelve hard disk drives, resulting in higher hardware acquisition costs and increased power, cooling and space requirements. Integration of the 12Gb/s SAS ROC into next-generation PCI Express 3.0-based systems is expected to deliver even higher performance levels.

“LSI has been a recognized contributor to the development and broad market adoption of SAS infrastructure,” said Marty Czekalski, vice president, SCSI Trade Association and Emerging Architecture program manager, Seagate Technology. “The SCSI Trade Association is excited to see member companies such as LSI publicly demonstrating early prototypes of 12Gb/s SAS silicon. Early public demonstration is a key technology milestone and helps lay the foundation for the initial 12Gb/s SAS Plugfest in mid-2012.”

According to industry estimates, 12Gb/s SAS market adoption will begin with the release of individual SAS components and devices, and gain momentum as OEMs begin production-volume shipments of 12Gb/s SAS-enabled servers and external storage systems. Volume shipments of 12Gb/s SAS-enabled servers is estimated to occur by early 2013, followed by the availability of external storage systems by mid-to-late 2013.

Since the inception of SAS, LSI has delivered an industry-leading portfolio of products including SAS ROC, controller and expander ICs, host bus adapters, MegaRAID® and 3ware® RAID controllers, 6Gb/s SAS switches, advanced software options and WarpDrive™ SLP-300 solid-state storage acceleration cards.

To learn more about the LSI 12Gb/s SAS ROC and to see the million IOPS performance demonstration, please visit LSI booth #819 at IDF 2011.

More information on the complete LSI SAS portfolio is available at www.lsi.com/sas.


About LSI

LSI Corporation (NYSE: LSI) is a leading provider of innovative silicon and software technologies that enable products, which seamlessly bring people, information and digital content together. The company offers a broad portfolio of capabilities and services including custom and standard product ICs, adapters and software that are trusted by the world’s best known brands to power leading solutions in the Storage and Networking markets. More information is available at www.lsi.com.