ATTO Technology has announced the general release of its ExpressSAS R348 and R380 RAID adapters. Compatible with Macs and PCs, the new PCI Express-based adapter cards support Serial Attached SCSI (SAS). The cards cost $1,095 each.
SAS is an evolution of the Small Computer Systems Interface (SCSI) used for some hard disk drives. It provides enhanced performance over traditional SCSI as it works at up to 3.0 gigabits per second (Gb/s). It enables up to 128 devices to be connected simultaneously using thinner and longer cables, and supports hot-plugging.
The two cards offered by ATTO share many features — PCIe interfaces compatible with Mac Pros and latter-day Power Mac G5s; support for RAID Levels 0, 1, 4, 5, 10, 50 and Just a Bunch of Disks (JBOD) arrays; SAS, SATA and SATA II connectivity, “Advanced Data Streaming” (ADS) support and more.
The main difference is that the ExpressSAS R348 can be configured either with four external and four internal ports or 8 internal ports. The ExpressSAS R380 operates specifically with eight external ports online.
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