Escalade 8506 Series —
High Performing, Scalable and Reliable!
3ware combines an advanced switched RAID
architecture (StorSwitch) with SATA drives to deliver
a premium performance, highly available storage
solution. Each controller boasts a PCI 66MHz custom
ASIC that combines an integrated RISC processor,
PCI bridge (64-bit, 66MHz) and XOR RAID engine.
The Escalade 8506 series features the only 8 and
12 port SATA RAID controllers available on the
market today, with support for up to 3TB of storage
per controller (dependent on drive capacity, 2TB
per single array maximum.) The Escalade 8506-8
and 8506-12 are ideal for enterprise storage applica-
tion environments where high levels of sustained
reads and writes are required. Applications include
NAS storage, webservers, cluster servers, near-line
backup and archival, security systems as well as
streaming applications for audio and video servers.
For 2U rackmount servers, 3ware offers the
low-profile 4-port Escalade 8506-4LP.
In accordance with its comprehensive quality
practice, 3ware puts all products through stringent
testing and works closely with third party hardware
and software partners to ensure compatibility.
StorSwitch Architecture — SATA
Solutions Optimized for Performance
3ware’s innovative switched fabric architecture
(StorSwitch) is opening minds throughout the
industry to the fact that
SATA based storage can
be highly reliable, available
and meet maximum
performance standards.
The StorSwitch architec-
ture is a non-blocking
switched fabric that
communicates with
each drive via a unique
port identifier. Based
on a combination of
design elements, which
include command queues, write caching algorithms
and interleaving data from each drive across the PCI
bus, StorSwitch enables multiple synchronous threads
to be executed simultaneously.The use of packet
switching technology means that no drive waits or is
penalized by another drive because of bus arbitration,
while executing read/write commands.The result is
superior overall system performance compared to
other Serial ATA RAID controllers.
No Risk Reliability
RAID is a must in environments where performance
and reliability cannot be compromised.The Escalade
8506 SATA RAID controllers all support RAID levels
0,1,10, 5 and JBOD
1
. Data availability is maintained
with features such as hot spare/hot swap, hot plug,
automatic rebuild and dynamic sector repair.
Managing the RAID installation is simple with 3ware
Disk Manager (3DM
®
), CLI, S.M.A.R.T. disk monitoring
and an integrated BIOS configuration utility. 3ware
Disk Manager software is a browser-based manage-
ment utility for easy local and remote management
of arrays. (Windows and Linux only).
1
2-port controllers support RAID levels 0, 1, and JBOD
2
Hot-spare not available on 2-port controllers
SATA — The Revolution in Storage
Serial ATA incorporates significant technical
enhancements over traditional ATA making it
ideal for RAID implementations. Along with
several configuration benefits, SATA technology
improves data transmission through a point-to-
point topology, which eliminates bus sharing
thereby delivering a full 1.5Gb/s bandwidth
to each drive. In order to optimize performance
in this point-to-point topology however, a switch
is required. 3ware is at the forefront of SATA
technology with the only switched fabric
architecture — StorSwitch. StorSwitch allows the
controller to simultaneously communicate with
all drives, scaling linearly as more drives are
added, resulting in the highest possible storage
subsystem performance.
• Supports up to 12, 8, 4, or 2
Serial ATA drives on a single PCI
card, enabling up to 3 terabytes
of storage on a half-length card
(dependent on drive capacity)
• StorSwitch switched architecture
delivers the full performance
benefit of Serial ATA’s point-to-
point architecture up to
1.5Gb/sec per port
• On-board processor provides
true hardware-based RAID and
intelligent drive management
functions
• RAID 0, 1, 10, 5 and JBOD
support
1
• 64-bit/66MHz PCI compliant
• BIOS set up utility and 3ware
Disk Management (3DM
®
)
web-based management software
• Bootable array support for greater
system fault tolerance
• Hot-swap and hot-spare features
for data availability
2
• Windows
®
, Linux
®
and FreeBSD
operating system support
Escalade
®
8506 SERIES
Serial ATA RAID Controller
Whether the challenge is increasing storage capacity or controlling costs, one technology —
Serial ATA (SATA) — gives IT professionals what they need to accomplish both goals.
The 3ware Escalade 8506 series delivers SATA RAID controllers that answer the call.
3ware is the proven leader in SATA solutions providing the highest levels of performance,
capacity, availability and reliability through its patented StorSwitch
™
architecture.
Escalade
KEY
PR
ODUCT
FEA
TURES
8506 SERIES
3ware SATA RAID
Controller
StorSwitch
HARD
DRIVE
HARD
DRIVE
HARD
DRIVE
HARD
DRIVE
UP TO
1.5Gb/sec
PER
PORT
