SATA RAID CARD ROUNDUP

ICP Vortex GDT8586RZ

ICP Vortex was a big name in the RAID industry many years ago.  They are a German company, once purchased by Intel, but was then sold off to Adaptec.  Their products were very well engineered and innovative.  Nowadays, it seems that they have lost industry share to other names, including their parent company Adaptec.  Below are images of the card and the contents of its retail packaging:

The GDT8586RZ utilizes one main ASIC to handle the RAID functions, while four Silicon Image 3112A controllers are used to interface with the drives.  It has a buzzer, and uses a 64-bit PCI slot up to 66MHz.  On the backside are the chips adding up to 128MB of SDRAM, and a row of LEDs at the top edge of the board, two per port.  These LEDs are very cool to watch, especially during RAID tests.  Once can actually see the rotating pattern at which data is being written and read.  Click on the thumbnails below to see details photos of the card itself:

Here are some specs from the ICP Vortex website:

GDT8586RZ is a 8-channel PCI RAID controller offering the option of connecting up to eight Serial ATA drives. Parallel ATA (IDE) disk drives can be linked with an optional accessory.

The controller is based on the Serial AT Attachment (SATA) technology, satisfying the demands for inexpensive entry level RAID solutions.

GDT8586RZ 8-port SATA RAID controller is designed for high density and/or entry-level rackmount servers, but also for high-end desktops and workstations.

• Hardware RAID Controller
  • Supports RAID 0, 1, 4, 5 and 10
  • Hot Plug, Auto Hot Plug with SAF-TE support
  • Private or Pool Hot Fix drives
  • Hardware RAID is totally independent of the host and operating system
  • Integrated, acoustic alarm

• Optimum in Memory Technology
  • Integrated 128MB PC133 ECC SDRAM
  • Intelligent multi-level cache algorithm with adaptive delayed write and read ahead functions

• Versatile Connectivity Capabilities
  • Supports eight internal independent SATA 1.0 channels
  • Data transfer rate up to 150MB/sec. per channel
  • Connection of one hard drive per channel (point-to-point configuration making cabling redundant)
  • Cable length up to one meter
  • No termination and no configuration of the hard drives required (advantage over SCSI and PATA with master/slave)
  • Optional "PATA/SATA Converter Kit" to connect up to eight parallel ATA (IDE) hard disks

• High Configuration Flexibility
  • ROM-resident setup (ICP RAID Console) with integrated Express Setup function (CTRL+<G>)
  • Simultaneous operation of several disk arrays
  • Flexible capacity setting
  • Online capacity expansion
  • Online RAID level migration
  • Complete disk array migration
  • Controller switch and controller upgrade without reconfiguration
  • Automatic adaptation to changes in SATA configuration

• Integrated RAID Software
  • ICP RAID Console - installation and monitoring software, available for all supported operating systems with the same 'look & feel', text-based graphical interface, remote access via TCP/IP and IPX/SPX protocols
  • ICP RAID Navigator - GUI tool for all Windows* operating systems above Windows* 95, context-sensitive online help, remote access to Windows*, Unix*, Linux* and NetWare* servers
  • Support for messaging and online diagnosis
  • Software updates based on Flash-RAM technology, making Internet downloads easier from this website

• Multiprocessor RISC Architecture
  • Intel* 80303 I/O processor, > 100 MIPS
  • Hardware XOR Engine, integrated coprocessor for optimized RAID 4/5 operations
  • Completely offloading the host CPU

• Operating System Support
  • Microsoft* Windows* NT/2000/XP, Novell* NetWare*, SCO* OpenServer*/UnixWare*/Open Unix*, Linux* and FreeBSD* (32bit)

• PCI Bus Specifications
  • 64-bit/66MHz PCI bus interface with up to 528MB/sec. data throughput
  • Backwards compatible with 32-bit/33MHz, 64-bit/33MHz and 32-bit/66MHz PCI slots, as well as PCI-X slots
  • Supports 5 Volt and 3.3 Volt PCI slots
  • Supports PCI Hot Plug functions under Windows* 2000 and Novell* NetWare* (OS driver need for "hot replacement" and PCI Hot Plug System)

• Delivery Contents
  • ICP disk array controller in 3/4 PCI form factor with 128MB integrated SDRAM
  • User's Manual and Quick Installation Guide
  • CD-ROM with tools and drivers
  • Three-year warranty

The ICP Storage Manager is a Java-based software program that allows users to manage the RAID card from any network-connected Windows PC.  Although the interface is natively SATA (by way of the 3112 controllers), the drives are grouped in pairs connected to each 3112 controller. 

Here are the test results:

HARDWARE RAID_0

Hardware RAID_0, 8x WD Raptor 740GD, 16k stripe size

Not very impressive...

Hardware RAID_0, 8x WD Raptor 740GD, 64k stripe size

Much better than 16k, but still not impressive.

Hardware RAID_0, 8x WD Raptor 740GD, 128k stripe size

More improvement over 64k, but still nowhere near where other RAID cards' speeds.

Hardware RAID_0, 6x WD Raptor 740GD, 64k stripe size

Hardware RAID_0, 4x WD Raptor 740GD, 64k stripe size

Hardware RAID_0, 2x WD Raptor 740GD, 64k stripe size

HARDWARE RAID_1

Hardware RAID_1, 2x WD Raptor 740GD

Abysmal here...

...but pretty darn good here.

HARDWARE RAID_5

Hardware RAID_5, 8x WD Raptor 740GD, 64k stripe size

Hardware RAID_5, 6x WD Raptor 740GD, 64k stripe size

Hardware RAID_5, 4x WD Raptor 740GD, 64k stripe size

SOFTWARE RAID_0

Software RAID_0, 8x WD Raptor 740GD

Software RAID_0, 6x WD Raptor 740GD

Software RAID_0, 4x WD Raptor 740GD

Software RAID_0, 2x WD Raptor 740GD

It seems evident here that the performance of this controller with eight drives is hampered by its four-channel design mated to SATA converters.  Having just four drives using software RAID_0 resulted in the best scores.  Most importantly, it looks like the algorithms of the controller itself just isn't as good as other's.