Adaptec Shows off Ultra320 RAID

Adaptec just let us know that it is now shipping Ultra320 RAID systems to PC-server OEMs. Compaq, Dell, Fujitsu/Siemens, Hewlett-Packard, and IBM are among the PC server OEMs that have already received Adaptec's Ultra320 SCSI ASIC samples. Adaptec says that Ultra320 includes two new performance-enhancing features: packet protocol and Quick Arbitration and Select (QAS). Packet protocol and QAS increase SCSI efficiency by allowing both data and commands to be transferred at 320 MBytes/sec speeds. The Company's Ultra320 products also support the new PCI-X bus, which doubles bus throughput to 1 GByte per second. The current PCI bus has enough bandwidth for today's Ultra 160 SCSI controllers. Adaptec's transition to Ultra320 SCSI RAID products is part of the Company's ``RAID Everywhere'' initiative to put RAID on every server. Launched in August 2000, RAID Everywhere is designed to accelerate the widespread adoption of RAID in the PC-server/high-end PC markets.