Microchip Announces Volume Production of Industry's First 24G SAS/PCIe Gen 4 Tri-Mode Storage Controller

Server OEMs and cloud operators designing storage platforms for next-generation data centers require higher performance from PCIe Gen 4's 16 CPU interfaces, along with support for the latest non-volatile memory express (NVMe™) solid-state drives (SSDs) and 24G SAS infrastructure. Microchip Technology Inc. (Nasdaq: MCHP) today announced the mass production of its first products featuring these capabilities. The first mass-produced SmartStorage Gen 4 PCIe Tri-Mode SmartROC 3200 (RAID-on-Chip) and SmartIOC 2200 (I/O controller) storage controllers offer highly secure and manageable features to meet the demanding requirements of server storage applications.

“As the industry rapidly transitions to PCIe Gen 4-based servers and non-volatile SSDs for high-performance storage, we remain committed to delivering versatile and innovative controller products while leveraging SAS/SATA HDDs for high-capacity storage,” said Pete Hazen, vice president of Microchip’s Data Center Solutions business unit. “We have achieved several industry firsts, including the first PCIe Gen 4 interface to support low-latency non-volatile memory express (NVMe) transfers with DirectPath technology, and the first to support 24G SAS with Dynamic Channel Multiplexing (DCM) for efficient aggregation of lower-speed SAS or SATA hard drives on a 24G SAS infrastructure.”

The SmartROC 3200 and SmartIOC 2200 products support x8 and x16 Gen 4 PCIe host interfaces, supporting up to 32 lanes of SAS/SATA/NVMe connectivity. Compared to similar products, both products offer support for up to 8GB of onboard cache, triple the RAID performance, and DCM delivers over 99% link efficiency while ensuring full interoperability with existing legacy SAS/SATA infrastructure.

Microchip's Smart Storage stack management tools simplify the integration process and enhance product flexibility for system integrators. The new Smart Storage products support Universal Backplane Management (UBM) for SFF, Intel Virtual Pin Port (VPP) for intelligent backplane management, and the DMTF standards-based Platform Level Data Model (PLDM)/Redfish® Device Enablement (RDE) specifications, simplifying the implementation of out-of-band management for Management Component Transport Protocol (MCTP) or Baseboard Management Controllers (BMCs).

Microchip's Trusted Platform support provides a new level of computing and supply chain security based on a hardware root of trust compliant with the Open Compute Security Project. Microchip has expanded its unique maxCrypto™ Controller Encryption (CBE)-based solution to support SAS, SATA, and now NVMe media.

Development Tools

Microchip's suite of popular deployment tools supports the new Intelligent Storage Platform products. These tools include maxView Storage Manager, ARCCONF Management Tool, DMTF standards-based PLDM/RDE and ChipLink Diagnostic Tool.

Availability

The SmartROC 3200/SmartIOC 2200 storage controllers are in production now and offer up to 32 ports of SAS/SATA/NVMe connectivity. For more information, visit www.microchip.com/smartstorage or contact a Microchip sales representative or authorized worldwide distributor.

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