IDE RAID controller offers 6 channels

Aralion Inc, a domestic ASIC design company, recently introduced a 6-channel ATA133 RAID controller that supports RAID 5. The ARS0304S supports six independent IDE channels that can be connected to any 64/32-bit or 66/33-MHz PCI data bus.

The chip contains an embedded XORing parity acceleration unit, freeing up CPU space and thereby enabling higher performance than existing software XORings. The chip’s RAID 5 support makes it ideal for storage system developers. “This innovative concept of design is brand new in the IDE RAID industry,” says Ki-soon Park, CEO of Aralion. RAID controller chips currently on the market support only two channels. With the ATA133, two IDE HDDs can be connected to one channel for 12Bay IDE storage, where six chips were required before.


The IDE-RAID controller demonstrates high performance at 133 Mbytes/s. The integration of all IDE-RAID controller functions into the ARS chip, including an internal PLL for creating clocks, helps minimize production costs. Two independent DMA channels in the ARS chip add flexibility to RAID-0 and RAID-1 implementation, and eliminate complex software. The chip also features hot-swap functionality.


The ATA133 supports both 3.3- and 5-V PCI and boot-ROM host interfaces. An online BIOS (basic input output system) can be updated with flash memory, and auto detection for a 33/66-MHz PCI clock is available. Application specific features include 4 general-purpose IO ports for application system, embedded XOR parity engine, intelligent interrupt controller, and multiple controller connection to a single hard disk drive. Also, 12C and extension bus interfaces are embedded in the solution to enable easy attachment of devices such as a buzzer, LED, serial-ROM, or LCD. The device is packaged in a 324-pin fine-line BGA.


Aralion
Fax (2) 2142-1630
www.aralion.co.kr