COMPETITIVE DASHBOARD Adaptec Unified Serial® Series 5 and Series 5Z RAID Controllers vs. LSI 3ware RAID Cards Adaptec RAID 3ware RAID Linux (in-box driver) – Kernel 2.4.x / 2.6.xx Yes Yes VMware (in-box driver) – ESX 3.x, ESXi 3.x and vSphere 4 Yes No Unix (in-box driver) – SCO Unix, UnixWare and Open Server Yes No Microsoft (in-box driver) – 2003/2008/Vista/XP Yes No Operating System Support Competitive Matrix Model Technology Adaptec Series 5Z Adaptec Series 5 Unified Serial® (SATA/SAS) Unified Serial® (SATA/SAS) Max Performance LSI 3ware RAID 9650SE LSI 3ware RAID 9690SA SATA Only SAS/SATA 1.2 GB/s 1.2 GB/s 700 MB/s 650 MB/s Port Flexibility 4–8 4–28 4–24 internal only 4–8 Max. Devices Connected 256 256 24 128 RAID 0, 1, 5, 6, 10, 50 Yes Yes Yes Yes RAID 1E, 5EE, 60 Yes Yes No No Battery Backup Unit No Yes Yes Yes Zero Maintenance Cache Protection (Flash-based) Yes No No No Automatic Copyback Hot Spare Yes Yes No No Optimized Disk Utilization Enclosure Management XOR Engine Processor Speed Yes Yes No No SES & SAF-TE SES & SAF-TE SAF-TE SES IOP348 IOP348 G133e G133e 1.2 GHz Dual Core 1.2GHz Dual Core 266 MHz 266 MHz Adaptec RAID Product Line LSI 3ware RAID Product Line Unified Serial Architecture Yes, all Series 5 controllers support both SATA and SAS devices and have tested compatible with over 300 devices. – Only the 9690 architecture allows support for SAS and SATA devices. 9650 supports only SATA drives. Zero maintenance cache protection (via NAND Flash) – – – – Yes, set it and forget it. Stores protected data for up to 10 years. No shutdown required for battery replacement. No batteries of which to dispose. RAID performance optimized immediately – charges in minutes instead of hours. – Always-on protection and performance. No, Li-Ion batteries are used for cache protection. ROC (RAID on Chip) technology Yes, controller is built on ROC architecture for improved reliability. No Intelligent Read Ahead Caching Yes, controllers have fast read ahead caching algorithms to support sustained read transfer speeds under Linux and Windows. No Intelligent Power Management Reduces storage energy consumption by as much as 70% without compromising application performance. Users can minimize power consumption by alternating between 3 modes: 1) Normal operation, 2) Standby, 3) Power-off. No Support for SAS Tapes Yes, controller supports SAS tapes and ATAPI devices. No Support for SAS Expanders Yes, SAS expanders are supported providing connectivity up to 256 devices seamlessly. Only the 9690 supports SAS expanders connecting up to 128 devices. Feature & Function Comparison Adaptec, Inc. 691 South Milpitas Boulevard Milpitas, California 95035 Tel: (408) 945-8600 Fax: (408) 262-2533 World Wide Web: www.adaptec.com Pre-Sales Support: US and Canada: 1 (800) 442-7274 or (408) 957-7274 Pre-Sales Support: Europe: Tel: (44) 1276-854-500 or Fax: (44) 1276-854-505 Copyright 2009 Adaptec, Inc. All rights reserved. Adaptec, the Adaptec logo, Storage Manager, and Storage Manager Pro are trademarks of Adaptec, Inc., which may be registered in some jurisdictions. Microsoft, Windows, Windows NT, and Windows 2000, are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation, used under license. All other trademarks used are owned by their respective owners. Information supplied by Adaptec Inc., is believed to be accurate and reliable at the time of printing, but Adaptec Inc., assumes no responsibility for any errors that may appear in this document. Adaptec, Inc., reserves the right, without notice, to make changes in product design or specifications. Information is subject to change without notice. Part Number: 637126-011 Printed in U.S.A. 05/09 6513_1.2