News Releases

Areca Technology Corporation (ARECA), a leading innovator in storage solutions, has announced a groundbreaking update to its RAID adapter firmware. Version 1.70 introduces NVMe drive emulation, marking a significant leap forward in storage technology integration and ease of use.

Key Highlights:

Dual Driver Support
- Inbox Native NVMe driver, leveraging built-in support from all modern operating systems
- Areca's legacy driver, ensuring backward compatibility
Plug-and-Play Functionality
- Automatic installation of the best-matched driver
- No user intervention required for driver media insertion
Enhanced Flexibility
- Option to choose between native NVMe and Areca's existing driver
- Support for a wide range of operating systems including Windows, RedHat Linux, SuSE Linux, FreeBSD, VMware and macOS
Advanced Monitoring Features
- SMTP integration for real-time email alerts
- SNMP support for seamless integration with existing network management systems
Broad Hardware Support
- Compatible with Areca's entire family of RAID adapters
- Includes entry-level ARC-1203 and high-performance ARC-1226, ARC-1883, and ARC-1886 series

Areca's RAID Software Suite has been expanded to fully support both legacy and NVMe modes, offering a comprehensive toolkit for system administrators and IT professionals:

- McBIOS RAID Utility:
- Streamlined configuration management via a virtual bootable disk (UEFI OS)
- Browser-based McRAID GUI:
- Accessible through ArcHttp proxy server
- ArcSAP Storage Manager:
- Network-wide discovery and management of multiple RAID units

In addition to the Software Suite, web GUI and CLI utility are also provided for users to configure, deploy, update, and monitor Areca's RAID adapters without deploying an agent.

** In-band ArcHttp and CLI utility are not supported under NVMe mode for macOS

This firmware update represents Areca's commitment to providing cutting-edge storage solutions that combine performance, flexibility, and ease of use. By embracing native NVMe driver support, Areca is ensuring that its RAID adapters remain at the forefront of storage technology, offering customers unparalleled compatibility and efficiency in their data management infrastructure.

Taipei, Taiwan June 27, 2022

Areca Technology Corporation (ARECA), a leading provider of internal RAID adapter, external RAID controller and Thunderbolt RAID storage, today announced the general availability and shipping of the cost-effective tri-mode hardware RAID adapters :ARC-1686-8I/8X.

Key Features:

PCIe 4.0 host interface, PCIe Gen4 x8 lanes at maximum transfer rate up to 128Gb/s
Tri-mode storage 12Gb/s SAS/SATA/PCIe Gen4 ports
Hardware-based RAID solution that supports RAID levels 0, 1(Simple/Multi Mirroring), 10, Single Disk (Single/Dual/Triple) and JBOD
Universal Bay Management (UBM) management
SFF-9402 compliant connector pin-out
Support for SAS tape devices and transport layer retries (TLR) for error handling
SED support for hardware encryption capable drives

Unparalleled Performance

The ARC-1686-8I/8X RAID adapters raise the standard to higher performance levels with several enhancements including new high performance 1.6GHz dual core ROC processor, 12Gb/s SAS/SATA/PCIe Gen4 (NVMe) tri-mode storage and high performance PCIe 4.0 interface bus interconnection. The ARC-1686-8I/8X RAID adapters are compatible with existing PCI Express SFF-8639 Module (U.2) backplanes allowing users to boost performance for increasing bandwidth requirements.

Guaranteed Data Protection

Designed and leveraged with Areca’s existing high performance RAID solution, ARC-1686-8I/8X provides superior levels performance and enterprise level data protection for the most demanding next-generation server and storage environments. It supports the hardware RAID levels 0, 1 (Simple/Multi Mirroring), 10, Single Disk (Single/Dual/Triple) or JBOD. The on-board ROC incorporates advanced security through hardware secure boot. Hardware secure boot helps ensure that the firmware code running on ARC-1686-8I/8X hardware platforms is authentic and unmodified.

Areca cost-effective RAID controllers incorporate onboard ROC processors to deliver true hardware RAID. The ability of hardware RAID controllers to rebuild an array in the event of a drive failure is superior to what software RAID controllers offer. ARC-1686 enables the addition of direct attached SAS tape to store the growing amount of digital data being generated and stored in local or cloud storage to provide better margins over HDD technology.

Intuitive RAID Management

The ARC-1686 RAID adapter supports broad operating system which is same as our ARC-1886 series tri-mode RAID adapter. The McBIOS RAID is a BIOS based utility used to simplify configure and manage RAID adapter via hot key at M/B BIOS boot-up screen. Without having to deploy an agent, you can also configure, deploy, update, and monitor the ARC-1686, via the GUI or through CLI utility. Customers can launch the firmware browser-based McRAID GUI through the ArcHttp proxy server. Additionally, Areca ArcSAP storage manager allows the user to scan multiple RAID units in the network and perform GUI management operations across multiple RAID units.

Taipei, Taiwan June 14, 2022 -

Areca Technology Corporation (ARECA) today launches the entry level NVMe hardware RAID adapters: ARC-1686 to offer 2/4/6 X M.2 slots along with many advanced features.

Entry Level NVMe RAID Adapter Build on Powerful Hardware

This ARC-1686-xNOD series is based on Broadcom SAS3908/ SAS3916 x8 Raid on Chip (ROC). It raised the standard to high performance level by adopted 1.6GHz dual core ROC processor, outstanding PCIe 4.0 x 8 host interface and 12Gb/s SAS/SATA/NVMe devices bus interconnection. Damage in a software RAID is considered as the consumption of massive computation and memory bandwidth on the host.

The ARC-1686 supports both 2280 and 22110 form factor NVMe drives and combines them on a tri-mode hardware RAID adapter to maximize I/O performance for database applications and streaming digital media environments. With a single ARC-1686-xNOD RAID adapter system integrators can take full advantages of 2/4/6 x PCIe Gen 4.0 M.2 x2/x4 NVMe drives or 6Gb/s M.2 SATA SSD drives support RAID level 0, 1(Simple/ Multi mirroring), single disk(Single/Dual/Triple) or JBOD.

Entry Level NVMe RAID Adapter with Enterprise Design Features Off Module Power (OMP) Lose Protection

An enterprise storages need to ensure data integrity in the event of power lose and system crash. The Power Lose Protection (PLP) is hardware and firmware solution on the ARC-1686-xNOD to ensure that NVMe SSD integrity is maintained when a power loss event occurs.

Fault LEDs stay on for Troubleshooting

On-board Supercapacitor module keeps M.2 fault LEDs status to easy identify failed drive when ARC-1686-xNOD RAID adapter removes from system PCI-e slot.

M.2 NVMe Power Disable Feature

The Power Disable Feature is asserted by the controller ROC to shut off 3.3 V power to the M.2 slot. To complete M.2 NVMe drive to be similar specification as SATA drive by send an electricity power cycle to NVMe drive as a testing function automatically to make a judgment that drive can be indeed failed or re-used. Need no to send a technician to do “power down” and “power on” manually. This feature is similar as Power disable feature (PD) – disk cold boot management feature which introduced SATA 3.3 – February 2 2016.

Un-authorized access thief and hacker deny - Self Encryption Drive (SED) support

The ARC-1686-xNOD RAID adapter firmware security function together with Self Encryption Drives (SED) secures data from un-authorized access. Protection is achieved by SED NVMe drive that automatically and continuously encrypts data on the drive without any user interaction.

Taipei, Taiwan April 27, 2022 -

Areca Technology Corporation (ARECA), a leading provider of internal RAID adapter, external RAID controller and Thunderbolt RAID storage, today announced the general availability and shipping of the entry level NVMe hardware RAID adapters :ARC-1686 to offer 2/4/6 X M.2 slots.

Key Features:

PCIe 4.0 host interface, PCIe Gen4 x8 lanes at maximum transfer rate up to 128Gb/s
Support up to 2/4/6 PCIe Gen4 M.2 slots
Tri-mode storage 12Gb/s SAS/SATA/PCIe (NVMe) ports
Hardware-based RAID solution that supports RAID levels 0, 1(Simple/Multi Mirroring), 10, Single Disk (Single/Dual/Triple) and JBOD
Device interface PCIe Gen4 NVMe/6Gbps SATA per M.2 port
Support individual NVMe PowerDisable feature
SED support for hardware NVMe encryption capable drives
Adapter off module power loss protection (PLP) saves data issued without data loss at power fail for Non PLP NVMe drive
On-board Supercapacitor to keep on M.2 fault LED status for troubleshooting
Buzzer beeping for any of RAID adapter warning conditions.

NVMe Performance Gains for Fast Data

Based on the ARM A15 x8 PCIe Gen 4.0 to SAS/SATA/PCIe RAID on Chip (ROC) controller, the ARC-1686 RAID adapter raises the standard to higher performance levels with several enhancements including a new high performance 1.6 GHz dual core ROC processor, outstanding performance PCIe Gen 4.0 host and 12Gb/s SAS/SATA/PCIe (NVMe) interface bus interconnection. The ARC-1686, providing an extremely fast, reliable, and ultra-compact solution for companies that need storages, is especially designed and featured in the high-speed data recording and processing.

This RAID adapter can back up to 2/4/6 NVMe on just one PCIe adapter. The ARC-1686 supports both 2280 and 22110 form factor drives and combines them on a tri-mode RAID adapter to maximize I/O performance for database applications and streaming digital media environments. The ARC-1686 hardware RAID relieves the computing burden from the host and maximizes application processing performance.

Guaranteed Data Protection

In Areca’s high-performance RAID solution, ARC-1686 brings PCIe NVMe to a superior performance hardware RAID at an elevated throughput, high IOPs and a low latency. It supports RAID levels 0, 1(Simple/Multi Mirroring), 10, Single Disk (Single/Dual/Triple) and JBOD.

The ARC-1686 off module power loss protection (PLP) is optimized for datacenter environments. Its efficient PLP typically applies the capacitors on the NVMe SSD to provide hold-up power until the data is flushed from the NVMe internal DRAM to the NAND flash upon a sudden power off or any failure condition occurrence. The ARC-1686 utilizes the on board supercapacitor to provide off module hold-up power, eliminating the need for capacitors on the NVMe SSDs which helps reduce cost. The on-board supercapacitor supporting M.2 slot will show a fault LED status and easily be identified as a failed drive when it is removed from the system PCIe slot. The ARC-1686 Power Disable feature provides an easy way to power cycle a physical NVMe drive in order to perform a hard reset.

Intuitive RAID Management

Taipei, Taiwan January 03, 2021 -

Areca Technology Corporation (ARECA), a leading provider of internal RAID adapter, external RAID controller and Thunderbolt RAID storage, today announced the general availability and shipping of the NVMe hardware RAID adapter: ARC-1886-6N2I to offer both 6 x M.2 slots and 2 x 12Gb/s SAS/SATA internal ports.

Key Features:

PCIe 4.0 host interface, PCIe Gen4 x8 lanes at maximum transfer rate up to 128Gb/s
Support up to 6 x PCIe Gen4 M.2 slots
Implemented 8GB 72-bit DDR4-2666 SDRAM providing hardware RAID assist engine for parity calculations
Dynamically allocate storage 12Gb/s SAS/SATA/PCIe (NVMe) to NVMe slot1 and SATA/SAS ports
Hardware-based RAID solution that supports RAID levels 0, 1, 10, 5, 6,10, 50, 60, Single Disk and JBOD
Supports up to 256 SATA or SAS devices using SAS expanders
Firmware automatically backup from NVMe RAID to SAS/SATA RAID
Adapter off module power loss protection (PLP) saves data issued without data loss at power fail for Non PLP NVMe drive
CBM module or on-board battery(CR2032) to keep on M.2 fault LED status for troubleshooting
Buzzer beeping for any of RAID adapter warning conditions

NVMe Performance Gains for Fast Data

Based on the ARM A15 x8 PCIe Gen 4.0 to SAS/SATA/PCIe RAID on Chip (ROC) controller, the ARC-1886-6N2I RAID adapter raises the standard to higher performance levels with several enhancements including a new high performance 1.6 GHz dual core ROC processor, a DDR4-2666 memory, outstanding performance PCIe Gen 4.0 host and 12Gb/s SAS/SATA/PCIe (NVMe) interface bus interconnection. The RAID adapter by default supports on-board 8GB of ECC DDR4-2666 SDRAM memory. The ARC-1886-6N2I, providing an extremely fast, reliable, and ultra-compact solution for companies that need storages, is especially designed and featured in the high-speed data recording and processing.

The ARC-1886-6N2I dynamically allocates storage PCIe 4.0 lanes to NVMe slot1 and SAS/SATA ports to get best performance – for professional media workstation and server environments designed to support high-speed data recording and processing. This RAID adapter can back up to 6 NVMe on just one full high PCIe adapter, increasing the capacity/speed as more NVMes are added to it. The ARC-1886-6N2I supports both 2280 and 22110 form factor drives and combines them on a tri-mode RAID adapter to maximize I/O performance for database applications and streaming digital media environments. Damage in a software RAID is considered as the consumption of massive computation and memory bandwidth on the host. The ARC-1886-6N2I hardware RAID relieves the parity generation burden from the host and maximizes application processing performance.

Guaranteed Data Protection

In Areca’s high-performance RAID solution, ARC-1886-6N2I brings PCIe NVMe to a superior performance hardware RAID at an elevated throughput, high IOPs and a low latency. It supports the hardware RAID 6 engine and allows two devices failures without impacting the existing data and performance. The ARC-1886VN provides a dual disk arrays including a NVMe disk array and a SAS/SATA hard disk array. The 6 PCs NVMe are for extreme speed purpose (8K uncompressed video data editing, Gaming.. etc), then use 2 SAS/SATA HDD as storage area. The RAID firmware will have a special mode to preset the value and back up the data of M.2 NVMe disk array to the SAS/SATA port hard disk array when the host workload level does not reach the preset value. This has the advantages of fast access to data by the NVMe disk and scores high reliability of data storage on the hard disk.

The ARC-1886-6N2I off module power loss protection (PLP) is optimized for datacenter environments. Its efficient PLP typically applies the capacitors on the NVMe SSD to provide hold-up power until the data is flushed from the NVMe internal DRAM to the NAND flash upon a sudden power off or any failure condition occurrence. The ARC-1886-6N2I utilizes the optional CBM module to provide off module hold-up power, eliminating the need for capacitors on the NVMe SSDs which helps reduce cost. The optional CBM module or on-board battery (CR2032) supporting M.2 slot will show a fault LED status and easily be identified as a failed drive when it is removed from the system PCIe slot. Controller based hardware encryption manages any kinds of drives attached to ARC-1886-6N2I adapter without impacting the performance for higher levels of security.

Intuitive RAID Management

The ARC-1886-6N2I RAID adapter supports broad operating system including Windows, Linux (Open Source), FreeBSD (Open Source), Mac, VMware and more, along with key system monitoring features such as enclosure management and SNMP function. The McBIOS RAID is a BIOS based utility used to simplify configure and manage RAID adapter via hot key at M/B BIOS boot-up screen. Without having to deploy an agent, you can also configure, deploy, update, and monitor the ARC-1886-6N2I, via the GUI or through CLI utility. Customers can launch the firmware browser-based McRAID GUI through on-board Ethernet port or ArcHttp proxy server. Additionally, Areca ArcSAP storage manager allows the user to scan multiple RAID units in the network and perform GUI management operations across multiple RAID units.

ARC-1886-6N2I is available immediately, shipping in January 2021.

Taipei, Taiwan October 15, 2019 -

Areca Technology Corporation (ARECA), a leading provider of internal, external and Thunderbolt RAID controllers, today announced the general availability and shipping of the RAID storage: ARC-8050T3U Thunderbolt 3 port to offer both Thunderbolt and USB protocol for increasing compatibility among USB based hosts. In short: ARC-8050T3U is based on Thunderbolt 3 technology, backwards compatible with USB 3.2 Gen 2, USB 3.2 Gen 1 and USB 2.0.

The ARC-8050T3U connecting to a Thunderbolt 3 computer port is the native Thunderbolt 3 connectivity–connecting ARC-8050T3U to a USB only computer port is considered a typical native USB 3.2 Gen 2 connectivity. The advancement of 10Gbps USB3.2 Gen 2 connectivity allows the ARC-8050T3U RAID storage to transfer end-to-end 10Gbps storage speed between the storage enclosure and the USB only host system. You can simply connect to any Thunderbolt 3 computer or USB only computer using the same 40Gbps passive cable from thunderbolt 3 port on the ARC-8050T3U. In the future new 1-2m TBT 40Gbps Thunderbolt™ 3 cable will be updated to support Thunderbolt, USB, DP for increasing cable length.

The ARC-8050T3U offers a high performance storage device perfect for the creative professionals, media and Mac enthusiasts who are looking for a Thunderbolt 3 computer, and USB only computer to share or access data in their storage device through same RAID device Thunderbolt 3 port . Today’s TB3 RAID storage only works with computers featuring Thunderbolt 3 ports. By contrast, the ARC-8050T3 can fall back for use as a USB-C sink, allowing it to offer "basic compatibility" with USB-C ports. The ARC-8050T3U RAID storage family is used the same market well proven ARC-8050T3 RAID controller’s based board and software package. It also consists of five models: the -4, the -6, the-8, the-12 and the -24 with four, six, eight, twelve and twenty-four 2.5/3.5” hot-swappable bays, respectively.

ARC-8050T3U RAID storages are available immediately, shipping in October 2019.

Taipei, Taiwan April.13, 2018 -

Areca Technology Corporation (ARECA), a leading provider of internal, external and Thunderbolt RAID controllers, today announced the enhanced configuration features in the new version firmware. This new enhanced features include RAID 1-Multi Mirroring and Mirrored Pass-Through Disks that delivery a truly innovative hardware triple disks mirror solution.

Usually RAID 1-Simple Mirroring uses just two disks in a mirror. A third disk in the mirror set would permit active double-redundancy like with RAID-6, but without the overhead of parity generation, so better performance at lower cost. You can set up a RAID 1-Multi Mirroring or Mirrored Pass Through three disks system so that it mirrors data onto three identical disks all mirrored. If you combine an SSD and HDDs in a Mirrored Pass-Through, RAID1-Simple Mirroring or RAID 1-Multi Mirroring hybrid solution, the reads are obtained from the SSD with SSD speed. You don’t need to use OS and/or Software to create the copies of your data across multiple drives.

RAID 1-Multi Mirroring

RAID 1-Multi Mirroring is also known as “triple disk mirror”; data written on one disk drive is simultaneously written to another two disk drives. Read performance will be enhanced if the array controller can, in parallel, access all members of multi mirrored drives. During writes, there will be a minor performance penalty when compared to writing to a single disk. If one or two drive fails, all data (and software applications) are preserved on the healthy drive. RAID 1-Multi Mirroring writes three copies of everything, but its data storage capacity effective is 33.3%.

Mirrored Pass-Through Disk

Pass-through disks are attached to a RAID controller and operate as if they were attached to a non-RAID controller. No RAID configuration structure is stored on these physical disks. This feature is primarily targeted for users moving physical disks containing data from non-RAID controllers to RAID controllers. The disk is available directly to the operating system as an individual disk. It is typically used on a system where the operating system is on a disk not controlled by the RAID controller firmware. A mirrored pass-through disk means controller will be regarded as the hard disk clone function, a host’s data will write simultaneously into dual or triple hard disks in the RAID controller. Triple pass-through means “save three copies of the data such that you can survive two disks failure and still have everything.”

Taipei, Taiwan October.12, 2017 -

Areca Technology Corporation (ARECA), a leading provider of internal, external and Thunderbolt RAID controllers, today announced the availability and shipping of the ARC-8050T3-12R/24R Thunderbolt 3 rackmount SAS RAID storage. The new rackmount storage system uses the Thunderbolt 3 interface with RAID control capabilities and aiming users of the Thunderbolt-capable computer. It is the most powerful plug and play rackmount solution for 4K video editing.

ARC-8050T3-12R/24R rackmount is equipped with dual Thunderbolt 3 ports for connecting to any Thunderbolt 3-enabled host and offers an additional Thunderbolt 3 port for daisy-chaining other peripherals, while also supplying power for quick notebook charging. The Thunderbolt daisy-chaining allows connection of up to six devices, so customers can connect the ARC-8050T3 rackmount for massive amounts of video storage with a single Thunderbolt connection to their host computer. Featuring up to 12/24 12Gb/s drive channels the ARC-8050T3-12R/24R ensure superior performance, extreme reliability and exceptional data availability in today's 4K video editing storage environments. ARC-8050T3 rackmount also sports a full sized DisplayPort video output connector on its rear, allowing for a quick and easy 4K 60Hz display setup.

ARC-8050T3 rackmount provides a high performance storage device perfect for the video editor working with Real time multi-stream HD and 4K workflows. It runs efficiently without disruption or major drops in performance to meet the requirements of 4K data workflow. It is so quick it allows for 4K displays at the same time as daisy chaining the ARC-8050T3 rackmount and doing a simultaneous 4K output and file transfers while maintaining maximum throughput.

ARC-8050T3-12R/24R rackmount storage has range of features, which include:
• Multiple configurations using the Thunderbolt/LAN port/LCD
• Advanced configuration for smooth data streaming.
• EFI Option ROM supported for macOS multi-boot
• Controller-level hardware encryption for higher levels data security
• Support BBM/FBM option for data availability
• Intelligent power On/Off function for data integrity
• Easy access the status report via LCD

Areca overall RAID technology and with the Thunderbolt 3, provide the next level of faster and secure safely backup enormous amount of digital data in the industrials. Simplify known the high quality hardware introduce to the industry. ARC-8050T3-12R/24R is available immediately, shipping in October 2017.

Taipei, Taiwan October.11, 2017 -

Areca Technology Corporation (ARECA), a leading provider of internal, external and Thunderbolt RAID controllers, today announced the availability and shipping of ARC-8050T3-6M Thunderbolt 3 compact SAS/SATA RAID storage with an optional handle for easy carry. Industry Standard 4-pin XLR connector on its rear is an alternative power source (use Battery Power or supplied AC Adapter). ARC-8050T3-6M RAID storage delivers performance and capacity in a new, portable form factor with 2.5 inch drives. It is the perfect compact design for anyone who needs a quality portable storage solution when working with offsite and in-studio.

ARC-8050T3-6M is equipped with dual Thunderbolt 3 ports for connecting to any Thunderbolt 3-enabled host and offers an additional Thunderbolt 3 port for daisy-chaining other peripherals, while also supplying power for quick notebook charging. The Thunderbolt daisy-chaining allows connection of up to six devices, so customers can connect ARC-8050T3-6M for massive amounts of video storage with a single Thunderbolt connection to their host computer. ARC-8050T3-6M also sports a full sized DisplayPort video output connector on its rear, allowing for a quick and easy 4K 60Hz display setup.

ARC-8050T3-6M provides a high performance storage device perfect for the video editor working with Real time multi-stream HD and 4K workflows. It runs efficiently without disruption or major drops in performance to meet the requirements of 4K data workflow. It is so quick it allows for 4K displays at the same time as daisy chaining ARC-8050T3-6M and doing a simultaneous 4K output and file transfers while maintaining maximum throughput. Advanced Configuration feature provides optimized parameter to adjust controlled firmware behavior for smooth data streaming.

ARC-8050T3-6M provides advantage of a wide variety of features. Intelligent power On/Off function on storage turns power in unison with the host computer power status for data integrity. Controller-level hardware encryption manages any kinds of attached drives without impacting the performance for higher levels of security. Areca solution of Thunderbolt 3 RAID storage also offers EFI Option ROM supported for macOS multi-boot. Users can select whether configuration and monitoring is through Thunderbolt interface or from a LAN port. The ArcSAP quick manager is a multi-language management software specifically designed for managing and configuring the ARC-8050T3-6M RAID storage.

Taipei, Taiwan May. 04, 2017 -

Areca Technology Corporation (ARECA), a leading provider of internal and external RAID controllers, today announced the availability and shipping of ARC-9200, a SAS-based 1U RAID head solution. ARC-9200 RAID head offers a fault-tolerant links across separate host interface, enabling customer to build a fully redundant shared storage and application failover with existing high-density JBOD enclosure.

Powered by Areca's existing external RAID controller design, ARC-9200 is a brand new module RAID head delivering the combination of high performance, high reliability, and data availability required in today’s data-intensive storage environments. The modular design of the RAID head minimizes maintenance efforts, makes installation simpler and easy leverages different JBOD to provide an affordable, highly capable and scalable storage. With either 8 x 12Gb/s SAS ports, 2/4 x 32/16Gb/s fibre channels or 2 x 10Gb/s iSCSI channel host options, the 1U RAID head is an ideal solution to adapt a wide range of applications. Available in single or redundant modular architectures, the RAID head can meet the needs of the professional who needs high-performance versatile RAID storage.

ARC-9200 incorporates onboard high performance 1.2GHz dual core ROC and one 204-pin SO-DIMM socket with default 2GB upgrade to 8GB DDR3-1600, 1RX8/2RX8, ECC SDRAM to deliver true hardware RAID performance. To achieve high availability, critical components such as controllers, power supply units and cooling modules are configured as redundant and hot-swappable capability. The optional flash-based backup module (FBM) provides power to transfer the cache data from the SDRAM memory to the 8GB NAND flash if it contains data not yet written to the drives when power is lost.

Configuration and monitoring can be managed either through the LCD control panel, RS232 port or LAN port. The firmware also contains an embedded terminal emulation via the RS-232 port. The firmware-embedded several available RAID managers include internet browser, CLI, Telnet, API, SMTP and SNMP via a LAN port. The ArcSAP Quick Manager can scan multiple RAID units in the local and remote side and provide an effective management interface for configuration, and monitoring Areca RAID controllers. Firmware and configuration data including vendor identification strings can be customized or tuned for individual OEM/ODM customer.

Taipei, Taiwan March.22, 2017 -

Areca Technology Corporation (ARECA), a leading provider of internal, external and Thunderbolt RAID controllers, today announced the availability and shipping of ARC-8050T3 Thunderbolt 3 compact SAS/SATA RAID storage. ARC-8050T3 RAID storage family consists of four models: the -4, the -6, the-8 and the -12 with four, six, eight and twelve 3.5” hot-swappable bays, respectively. The four new storage systems use the Thunderbolt 3 interface with RAID control capabilities and aiming users of the recently introduced Apple new MacBook Pro. Areca delivers a truly innovative storage solution and let the customers choose his Raid optimized drives on the ARC-8050T3 RAID storage.

ARC-8050T3 is equipped with dual Thunderbolt 3 ports for connecting to any Thunderbolt 3-enabled host and offers an additional Thunderbolt 3 port for daisy-chaining other peripherals, while also supplying power for quick notebook charging. Thunderbolt 3 supports data transfers at up to 40 Gbps, which is twice the bandwidth of Thunderbolt 2 and 4 times faster than USB 3.1. Thunderbolt daisy-chaining allows connection of up to six devices, so customers can connect ARC-8050T3 for massive amounts of video storage with a single Thunderbolt connection to their host computer. Additionally, ARC-8050T3 also supports a full sized Display-Port video output connector on its rear, allowing for a quick and easy 4K 60Hz display setup.

ARC-8050T3 provides a high performance storage device perfect for the video editor working with Real time multi-stream HD and 4K workflows. It runs efficiently without disruption or major drops in performance to meet the requirements of 4K data workflow. It is so quick it allows for 4K displays at the same time as daisy chaining ARC-8050T3 and doing a simultaneous 4K output and file transfers while maintaining maximum throughput. Advanced Configuration provides optimized parameter to adjust controlled firmware behavior for smooth data streaming.

Intelligent power On/Off function on storage turns power in unison with the host computer power status. It can intelligently power down the unit after the thunderbolt host shuts down everything for data integrity. ARC-8050T3 also supports a battery backup option that protects all data in cache memory in the event of unexpected power outage. The board-level hardware encryption manages any kinds of drives attached to ARC-8050T3-6/8/12 without impacting the performance for higher levels of security. Configuration and monitoring can be managed either through the LCD control panel, Thunderbolt interface or LAN port. ArcSAP quick manager is a multi-language management software specifically designed for managing and configuring the ARC-8050T3 RAID storage.

ARC-8050T3-6/8/12 is available immediately, shipping in March 2017.

The 4-bays ARC-8050T3-4 solutions will be available in May 2017.

Taipei, Taiwan June. 24, 2015 -

Areca Technology Corporation (ARECA), a leading provider of internal, external and Thunderbolt RAID storage, today announced the availability of a new ARC-4038 12Gb/s SAS compact tower JBOD. The advancement of 12Gb/s SAS connectivity allows the ARC-4038 compact tower JBOD to transfer end-to-end 12Gb/s storage speed between the storage enclosure and the host server. Customers use the ARC-4038 JBOD to provide an affordable, highly scalable, high-performance storage solution that enables customers to expand capacity beyond the server to meet growing data requirements.

The ARC-4038 is based on 12Gb/s SAS technology and powered by the LSI SAS3x28 12Gb/s SAS expander controller chip. It can support 3/6/12Gb/s SAS or 3/6Gb/s SATA hard disk drives (HDDs) or solid-state drives (SSDs). Each ARC-4038 compact tower JBOD supports four 12Gb/s SFF-8644 and one 6Gb/s SFF-8088 SAS host and expansion connections. Out-of-band CLI can re-define manufacture default setting on those connections. The ARC-4038 incorporates the latest enhancements in SAS along with new LSI DataBolt bandwidth optimizer technology. LSI DataBolt technology buffers 6Gb/s data and then transfers it out to the host at 12Gb/s speeds in order to match the bandwidth between faster hosts and slower SAS or SATA devices.

ARC-4038 JBOD is fully qualified for using with ARC-1883x 12Gb/s SAS RAID adapters ARC-8088 12Gb/s RAID subsystem and ARC-1320 SAS host adapters with external ports, providing easy connectivity to servers for cost-effective storage expansion and scalability. It provides fault-tolerant links across separate SAS domains. The ARC-4038 can be connected into two host ports with those RAID or Host adapter ports which directly come from the SAS controller chip for the performance of I/O and bandwidth intensive applications.

The ARC-4038 firmware and EPLD has implemented the SES-3.0 protocol and disk activity map to the individual fault/activity status indicator on the backplanes. It has implemented autonomous chassis management of power supply status, two fan monitor/speed control through the SES-3.0 protocol. In data center environments, identifying issues with drives and environments are crucial. The hardware monitor can monitor system voltage and temperature. The warning message will be shown in alarm buzzer and respect LED.

Taipei, Taiwan October 29, 2014 -

Areca Technology Corporation (ARECA), a leading provider of internal, external and Thunderbolt RAID controllers, today announced the availability and shipping of ARC-5028T2 a 6-bay Thunderbolt 2/USB 3.0 to 6Gb/s SAS compact RAID storage. This product delivers a truly innovative solution for connecting 6-bay storage with RAID control capabilities to Thunderbolt-compatible computers. Areca focuses on the storage design and let the customers buy his Raid optimized drives on the ARC-5028T2 RAID storage.

“Thunderbolt™ delivers unparalleled performance, flexibility and simplicity to personal computing.” said Jason Ziller, Intel’s director of Thunderbolt Marketing, “Products like Areca, ARC-5028T2 help highlight what Thunderbolt makes possible.” Thunderbolt™ technology is the fastest connection to your PC at 20Gbs – in each direction, and at the same time. Thunderbolt provides flexibility and simplicity by connecting to data and display devices with a single cable, up to six devices in a daisy-chain.

ARC-5028T2 TB2/USB 3.0 RAID storage features two cutting-edge interfaces, Thunderbolt 2 and USB 3.0. It incorporates on-board high performance 800Mhz ARM_based storage I/O processor and with 1GB DDR3-800 SDRAM memory on-board with ECC protection to deliver true high performance hardware RAID. ARC-5028T2 gives video editor to unleash their professional creativity work in real-time, with the super high-bandwidth allow large amount of audio and 4K video capture/mixing devices transferred faster with low latency and high-accurate synchronization at 20 Gbps in both PC & Intel-based Mac. With innovative design features and support for SATA, SAS and SSDs, ARC-5028 supports the following advanced features.

Configuration by the Thunderbolt/LAN port/LCD
Advanced Configuration for smooth data streaming
Support bootable drive via Thunderbolt
Allow both old Mac Pro and newest Mac Pro model to access same storage seamlessly
Support BBM option for data availability
Intelligent power On/Off function for data integrity
Easy access the status report via LCD

Advanced Configuration provides optimized parameter to adjust controlled firmware behavior for smooth data streaming. Areca solution of Thunderbolt 2 provides user the capability of adding bootable drive via Thunderbolt on Apple Intel-based thunderbolt machine. Intelligent power On/Off function powers down the unit after the thunderbolt host shuts down everything for data integrity. ARC-5028T2 also supports a battery backup option that protects all data in cache memory in the event of unexpected power outage.

USB 3.0 is capable of transferring data at up to 5 Gbps; over 10 times faster than the 480 Mbps top speed of USB 2.0. User applications demand a higher performance connection between host and peripherals. USB 3.0 addresses this requirement by adding an even higher transfer rate to match these new usage and peripherals. USB 3.0 offers high-performance connectivity and is backward compatibility with any computer (such as Mac Pro) running compatible versions of Mac OS X or Windows. It allows both old Mac Pro and newest Mac Pro model to access same storage seamlessly.

Areca overall RAID technology and with the Thunderbolt 2, provide the next level of faster and secure safely backup enormous amount of digital data in the industrials. Simplify known the high quality hardware introduce to the industry. The ARC-5028T2 is available immediately, shipping in November 2014.

Thunderbolt and the Thunderbolt logo are trademarks of Intel Corporation in the US and other countries

Taipei, Taiwan April 2, 2014 -

Areca Technology Corporation (ARECA), a leading provider of internal, external and PCIe SAS RAID controllers, today announced the availability of a new ARC-8018 12Gb/s SAS expander module based upon the industry leading LSI™ Corporation 36-port LSISAS3X36R expander. SI customers use the module to build the rack-optimized 12Gb/s SAS or 6Gb/s SAS/ SATA JBOD storage enclosures designed to provide a affordable, highly scalable, high-performance storage solution that enables our customers to expand capacity beyond the server to meet growing data requirements.

The ARC-8018 supports up to 24 internal ports and 12 external ports flexibility host /expander port configuration. Each expander module features three external 12Gb/s SAS SFF-8644 connections, providing connectivity for two 4 lanes 12Gb/s SAS host with one 4 lanes 12Gb/s SAS expander for easy expansion. The ARC-8018 expander module attaches directly to SATA/SAS midplanes with 4 x Z-PACK HM-Zd high speed connectors. When expander port used with additional JBOD enclosures, the ARC-8018 can provide an ideal solution for enterprise-class storage applications that needs high-bandwidth applications and transaction-intensive applications to offer exceptional performance for NAS, server RAID solutions, supercomputing, near-line backup, security systems, streaming and cloud computing applications.

ARC-8018 JBOD is fully qualified for using with ARC-1883 12Gb/s SAS RAID adapters and LSI 12Gb/s SAS host adapter. All ports operate at 12Gb/s, 6Gb/s, 3Gb/s and 1.5Gb/s SAS. The ARC-8018 incorporates the latest enhancements in SAS along with new LSI DataBolt bandwidth optimizer technology. This is designed to help facilitate the industry transition to 12Gb/s SAS-enabled systems by allowing users to take advantage of 12Gb/s speeds while utilizing existing 6Gb/s drives and backplanes. Using DataBolt, the ARC-8028 buffers 6Gb/s data and then transfers it out to the host at 12Gb/s speeds in order to match the bandwidth between faster hosts and slower SAS or SATA devices.

ARC-8018 provides fault-tolerant links across separate SAS domains. It can be split into two virtual groups with those RAID or host adapter ports which directly come from the SAS controller chip for better performance application. Configuration and environmental information is accessible either via in-band SAS or out-of-band serial port.

Taipei, Taiwan January 28, 2014 -

Areca Technology Corporation (ARECA), a leading provider of internal, external and PCIe SAS or SATA ll RAID controllers with RAID 6 inside, today announced the availability and shipping of ARC-8050T2 a 8-bay Thunderbolt 2 to 6Gb/s SAS compact RAID storage. The Areca solution of Thunderbolt 2 provide the performance so quick it allows 4K video run at the same time as daisy chaining storages devices and doing a simultaneous 4K in/output file transfers. Areca focuses on the storage design and let the customers buy his Raid optimized disk drives on the ARC-8050T2 RAID storage.

"Thunderbolt™ delivers unparalleled performance, flexibility and simplicity to personal computing." said Jason Ziller, Intel's director of Thunderbolt Marketing, "Products like Areca, ARC-8050T2 help highlight what Thunderbolt makes possible." Thunderbolt™ technology is the fastest connection to your PC at 20Gbs - in each direction, and at the same time. Thunderbolt provides flexibility and simplicity by connecting to data and display devices with a single cable, up to six devices in a daisy-chain.

ARC-8050T2 gives video editor to unleash their professional creativity work in real-time, with the super high-bandwidth allow large amount of audio and 4K video capture/mixing devices transferred faster with low latency and high-accurate synchronization at 20 Gbps in both PC & Intel-based Mac. With innovative design features and support for SATA, SAS and SSDs, ARC-8050T2 supports the following advanced features.

Configuration by the Thunderbolt/LAN port/LCD
Advanced Configuration for smooth data streaming
Support bootable drive via Thunderbolt
Controller-level hardware encryption for higher levels data security
Support BBM option for data availability
Intelligent power On/Off function for data integrity
Easy access the status report via LCD

Advanced Configuration provides optimized parameter to adjust controlled firmware behavior for smooth data streaming. Areca solution of Thunderbolt 2 provides user the capability of adding bootable drive via Thunderbolt on Apple thunderbolt-capable machine. Intelligent power On/Off function powers down the unit after the thunderbolt host shuts down everything for data integrity. ARC-8050T2 also supports a battery backup option that protects all data in cache memory in the event of unexpected power outage. Board-level hardware encryption manages any kinds of drives attached to ARC-8050T2 without impacting the performance for higher levels of security.

Areca overall RAID technology and with the Thunderbolt 2, provide the next level of faster and secure safely backup enormous amount of digital data in the industrials. Simplify known the high quality hardware introduce to the industry. The ARC-8050T2 is available immediately, shipping in February 2014.

Thunderbolt and the Thunderbolt logo are trademarks of Intel Corporation in the US and other countries

Taipei, Taiwan, September, 18, 2013 -

Areca Technology Corporation (ARECA), a leading provider of internal, external and PCIe SAS or SATA lll RAID controllers, today announced the general availability and shipping of ARC-5026 TB/USB 3.0 RAID storage with Thunderbolt Trademark and Logo. This product delivers a truly innovative solution for connecting 4-bay 6Gb/s SATA storage with RAID control capabilities to Thunderbolt/USB 3.0 compatible computers. Areca focuses on the storage design and let the customers buy his Raid optimized drives on the ARC-5026 RAID storage.

This Thunderbolt storage system series is leveraging the strength of Intel’s flexibly revolutionary I/O technology and Areca innovative RAID 6 storage experience. “Thunderbolt delivers unparalleled performance, flexibility and simplicity to personal computing.” said Jason Ziller, Intel’s director of Thunderbolt marketing, “Products like Areca ARC-5026 help highlight what Thunderbolt makes possible.” Thunderbolt technology is the fastest connection to your PC at 10Gbs – in each direction, and at the same time. Thunderbolt provides flexibility and simplicity by connecting to data and display devices with a single cable, up to six devices in a daisy-chain.

ARC-5026 TB/USB 3.0 RAID storage features two cutting-edge interfaces, Thunderbolt and USB 3.0 for Mac and PC environment. Thunderbolt host interface make ARC-5026 RAID storage well suited for SOHO group professional who work at home and or in the office. Thunderbolt technology is developed for high speed data transfers. The data transfer rate at the speed of 10Gb per second. Thunderbolt port is shared by multiple devices and can transfer data equally distribute to all connected devices. ARC-5026 incorporated on-board high performance 933Mhz ARM_based storage I/O processor and with 1GB DDR3-933 SDRAM memory on-board with ECC protection to deliver true high performance hardware RAID for the demands of serious to deliver true high performance hardware RAID for the demands of serious HD media creators needs.

As the fastest available connection to your computer at 10Gbps, with Thunderbolt users can transfer an entire HD movie in less than 30 seconds making it ideal for fast synchronization of content between devices. When users require high performance back up and restore functionality Thunderbolt is obvious choice enabling the transfer of 1TB of data in less than 5 minutes.

USB 3.0 is the second major revision of the Universal Serial Bus (USB) standard for computer connectivity. USB 3.0 is capable of transferring data at up to 5 Gbps; over 10 times faster than the 480 Mbps top speed of USB 2.0. If your computer only has a USB 2.0 connection, then ARC-5026 will auto-negotiate to USB 2.0 speeds. User applications demand a higher performance connection between host and peripherals. USB 3.0 addresses this requirement by adding an even higher transfer rate to match these new usage and peripherals.

Thunderbolt Technology Possibilities

With Thunderbolt products, performance, simplicity and flexibility all come together. Users can add high-performance features to their PC over a cable, daisy chaining one after another, up to a total of 7 devices, 1 or 2 of which can be high-resolution DisplayPort v1.1a displays (depending on the controller configuration in the host PC). Because Thunderbolt technology delivers two full-bandwidth channels, the user can realize high bandwidth on not only the first device attached, but on downstream devices as well.

Thunderbolt benefit and Key Features

Dual-channel 10Gbps per port
Bi-directional
Dual-protocol (PCI Express and DisplayPort)
Compatible with existing DisplayPort devices
Daisy-chained devices
Electrical or optical cables
Low latency with highly accurate time synchronization
Uses native protocol software drivers
Power over cable for bus-powered devices

Taipei, Taiwan, December 24, 2012 -

Areca Technology Corporation (ARECA), a leading provider of internal, external and PCIe SAS or SATA RAID controllers with RAID 6 inside, today announced the general availability and shipping of ARC-8050 8-bay Thunderbolt to 6Gb/s SAS compact RAID storage.This product delivers a truly innovative solution for connecting 8-bay storage with RAID control capabilities to Thunderbolt-compatible computers.

ARC-8050 is the most complete 6Gb/s SAS 8-bay Thunderbolt box with RAID control capabilities solution for both PC and Mac. Thunderbolt host interface make ARC-8050 RAID box well suited for SOHO group professional who work at home and or in the office. Thunderbolt technology developed for high speed data transfer at the speed of 10Gbps per channel. Thunderbolt port is shared by multiple devices and can transfer data equally distribute to all connected devices. The ARC-8050 incorporated on-board high performance dual core 800Mhz ROC storage processor and with 1GB DDR3-1333 SDRAM memory on-board to deliver true high performance hardware RAID for the demands of serious HD media creators needs. For example, the benefit for video editor by using ARC-8050 to unleash their professional creativity work in real-time, with the high-bandwidth allow large amount of audio and video capture/mixing devices transferred faster with low latency and high-accurate synchronization at 10Gb/s. Data can be backed up and restored more quickly, so there’s less waiting for achieved content to transfer or copy.

Thunderbolt benefit and Key Features

Thunderbolt technology is a revolutionary high-speed, dual protocol I/O technology designed for performance, simplicity and flexibility. Thunderbolt I/O technology lets you move data between high-resolution displays and high-performance data devices on a single, compact port. Both data and display signals can be sent and received at the same time through dual 10 Gbps channels. A single cable attached to one of the ports provides 2 channels able to achieve the 10 Gbps speeds flowing both ways simultaneously. A single Thunderbolt port supports hubs as well as a daisy chain of up to seven Thunderbolt devices. To improve bandwidth transmission, Thunderbolt has implemented two duplex (PCIe and DisplayPort) channels into the controller and each channel can provide full bi-directional performance.

Thunderbolt and the Thunderbolt logo are trademarks of Intel Corporation in the US and other countries

Taipei, Taiwan, June 5, 2012 -

Areca Technology Corporation (ARECA), a leading provider of internal, external and PCIe SAS or SATA ll RAID controllers with RAID 6 inside, today announced the availability of ARC-8050 a 8-bay Thunderbolt to 6Gb/s SAS compact RAID storage.This product delivers a truly innovative solution for connecting 8-bay storage with RAID control capabilities to Thunderbolt-compatible computers.

This Thunderbolt storage system series is leveraging the strength of Intel’s flexibly revolutionary I/O technology and Areca innovative RAID 6 storage experience. “Thunderbolt technology brings speed and versatility to the PC, letting people connects high‐speed products and high‐resolution displays over a single cable,” said Jason Ziller, director of marketing for Thunderbolt technology at Intel Corporation.

Thunderbolt™ technology is the fastest connection to your PC at 10Gbs – in each direction, and at the same time. Thunderbolt provides flexibility and simplicity by connecting to data and display devices with a single cable, up to six devices in a daisy-chain.

Designed and leveraged with Areca’s existing high performance PCIe SAS RAID solution, this RAID storage delivers high-capacity at the best of cost/ performance value. It incorporates high performance dual core 800MHz RAID-on-Chip storage processor and on-board 1GB DDR3-1333 SDRAM memory to deliver true hardware RAID.ARC-8050 RAID storage can be configured to RAID levels 0, 1, 1E, 3, 5, 6, 10, 30, 50, 60, Single Disk or JBODprotection.

Areca Thunderbolt storage system targets on both audio and video application in Mac and Windows, such as the video editing and multi‐stream uncompressed HD workflows by providing the fastest speed and the available maximum capacity on single unit storage system. Professional GUI and the remote management feature are also a build-in standard of this Thunderbolt storage system.

We are currently working to get Thunderbolt device certified for Mac and/or Windows…look for further announcements soon.

Thunderbolt Technology Possibilities

Thunderbolt benefit and Key Features

Dual-channel 10Gbps per port
Bi-directional
Dual-protocol (PCI Express and DisplayPort)
Compatible with existing DisplayPort devices
Daisy-chained devices
Electrical or optical cables
Low latency with highly accurate time synchronization
Uses native protocol software drivers
Power over cable for bus-powered devices

Thunderbolt and the Thunderbolt logo are trademarks of Intel Corporation in the US and other countries.

Taipei, Taiwan, November 25, 2010 -

Areca Technology Corporation (ARECA), a leading provider of internal, external and PCI-X/PCIe SAS or SATA ll RAID controllers with RAID 6 inside, today announced the availability of a new family of ARC-8026 6Gb/s SAS expander controller. SI customers use the controller to build the rack-optimized 6Gb/s SATA and SAS JBOD storage enclosures designed to provide a affordable, highly scalable, high-performance storage solution that enables our customers to expand capacity beyond the server to meet growing data requirements.

The ARC-8026 series expander boards are based on 6Gb/s SAS technology and powered by the LSI SAS2x36 6Gb/s SAS expander controller chip. They support 3Gb/s and 6Gb/s SAS or SATA hard disk drives (HDDs) or solid-state drives (SSDs). Configuration and environmental information is accessible either via in-band or out-of-band serial port. The ARC-8026 series expander boards offer SES2 support for management via in-band SAS SMP protocol.

The ARC-8026 supports up to 24 internal ports and 12 external ports flexibility host /expander port configuration. Each expander board features three external 6Gb/s SAS SFF-8088 connections, providing connectivity for two 4 lanes 6Gb/s SAS host with one 4 lanes 6Gb/s SAS expander or one 4 lanes 6Gb/s SAS host with two 4 lanes 6Gb/s SAS expander for easy expansion. When expander port used with additional JBOD enclosures, the ARC-8026 can provide an ideal solution for enterprise-class storage applications that needs high-bandwidth applications and transaction-intensive applications to offer exceptional performance for NAS, server RAID solutions, supercomputing, near-line backup, security systems, streaming and cloud computing applications.

ARC-8026 series expander boards are fully qualified for using with ARC-1880 6Gb/s SAS RAID adapters and ARC-1320 SAS host adapters with external ports, providing easy connectivity to servers for cost-effective storage expansion and scalability. It provides fault-tolerant links across separate SAS domains. The ARC-8026 expander board can be split into two virtual groups with those RAID or Host adapter ports which directly come from the SAS controller chip for better performance application. In addition to meet different enclosure, ARC-8026 expander box has implemented autonomous chassis management of two power supplies status connectors, four fan monitor/speed control connectors through the SES-2 protocol.

Taipei, Taiwan, August 9, 2010 -

Areca Technology Corporation (ARECA), a leading provider of internal RAID Controller, external RAID controller and PCI-X/PCIe RAID adapters with RAID 6 inside, today announced that its first family ARC-1880 6Gb/s PCIe 2.0 SAS RAID adapters have featured with 8~24 internal and/or 4 external 6Gb/s SAS ports. ARC-1880ix-12/16/24 series include one DIMM socket with default 1GB of ECC Register DDR2-800 SDRAM with optional battery backup module, upgrade to 4GB. The ARC-1880i/1880x/1880ixl-8/1880ixl-12 low profile series adapter default support 512MB on-board memory. Those low profile adapters are ideal for 1U/2U servers.

The ARC-1880 series adapters raise the standard to higher performance levels with several enhancements including a new high-performance 800Mhz RAID-on-Chip processor, a DDR2-800 memory architecture, 6Gb/s SAS-2 and PCIe 2.0 x8 lanes host interface bus interconnection. By incorporating many new advanced features, ARC-1880 series 6Gb/s SAS RAID adapters provide all of the necessary capabilities for applications to achieve the maximum possible availability, reliability, scalabilityand performance. Leveraging existed RAID adapter’s technology, the adapters provide the same customers familiar API, CLI, McBIOS manager or browser-based McRAID manager management tool to simplify the creation, monitoring and maintenance of storage configurations.

With innovative new 6Gb/s SAS product features and support for SATA, SAS and solid-state drives (SSDs), the Areca 1880 series controllers provide small- to mid-sized enterprises with superior levels of performance and scalability. The 6Gb/s SAS/SATA interface supports both SAS disk drives for data-intensive applications, and Serial ATA (SATA) drives for low-cost bulk storage of reference data. Applications that benefit most features from these adapters include NAS, server RAID solutions, supercomputing, near-line backup, security systems, digital content creation, streaming video and cloud computing applications.

The 6Gb/s SAS RAID adapters can also provide RAID levels 0, 1, 1E, 3, 5, 6, 10, 30, 50, 60, Single Disk or JBOD for maximum configuration flexibility. The 6Gb/s SAS RAID adapters support broad operating system including Windows 7/2008/Vista/2003/XP, Linux (Open Source), FreeBSD (Open Source), Solaris (Open Source), Mac, VMware and more, along with key system monitoring features such as enclosure management(SES-2, SMP & SGPIO) and SNMP function. Our products and technology are based on extensive testing and validation process; same as Areca 3Gb/s SAS/SATA ll RAID adapter field-proven compatibility with operating systems, motherboards, applications and device drives.

Taipei, Taiwan, June 1, 2010 -

Areca Technology Corporation (ARECA), a leading provider of internal, external and PCI-X/PCIe SAS or SATA ll RAID controllers with RAID 6 inside, today announced the ARC-8040 a8-bay6Gb/s SAS to SAS compact RAID subsystem. The ARC-8040 is a truly innovative 6Gb/s SAS to SAS RAID 8-bay subsystem with RAID control capabilities. The SAS 2.0 interface supports both 6Gb/s SAS disk drives for data-intensive applications and 6Gb/s SATA drives for low-cost bulk storage of reference data.

The 6Gb/s host interfaces make ARC-8040 RAID subsystem well suited for professionals who need large capacity and exceptional performance with connectivity.The ARC-8040 incorporates onboard high performance 800MHz RAID-on-Chip storage processor and on-board 512MB DDR2-800 SDRAM memory to deliver true hardware RAID. Applications demand for higher computing power, networking bandwidth and support for virtualization applications are driving RAID subsystem for improved architecture internal bus interface and RAID performance.The powerful LSI’s LSISAS2116 6Gb/s SAS RAID-on-Chip (RoC) controllerintegrated 16 x 6Gb/s SAS ports on chip delivers high performance for NAS, server RAID solutions, supercomputing, near-line backup, security systems, streaming and cloud computing applications.

Designed and leveraged with Areca’s existing high performance solution, this controller delivers high-capacity at the best of cost/ performance value. It supports the hardware RAID 6 engine to allow two HDDs failures without impact the existing data and performance. Its high data availability and protection derives from many advanced RAID features. The ARC-8040 RAID subsystem allows easy scalability from JBOD to RAID. It can be configured to RAID levels 0, 1, 1E, 3, 5, 6, 10, 30, 50, 60, Single Disk or JBOD. With innovative new RAID-on-Chip 6Gb/s SAS feature and support for SATA, SAS and SSDs, the ARC-8040 provides small- to mid-sized enterprises with superior levels of RAID performance and scalability for external storage.

The ARC-8040 supports flexibility interface configuration; one 4 lanes 6Gb/s SAS host with one 4 lanes 6Gb/s SAS expander or two 4 lanes 6Gb/s SAS host for easy expansion and performance. When expander port used with SAS 6Gb/s expander, the ARC-8040 can provide up to (122) devices through one or more 6Gb/s SAS JBODs, making it an ideal solution for enterprise-class storage applications that call for maximum configuration flexibility.

Taipei, Taiwan, January 6, 2010 -

Areca Technology Corporation (ARECA), a leading provider of internal, external and PCI-X/PCIe SAS or SATA ll RAID controllers with RAID 6 inside, today announced that its 8-bay 3Gbps eSATA, FireWire 800, iSCSI/AoE and USB2.0 multiple hosts compact RAID subsystem.

The ARC-5040 is the most complete 8-bay 3.0 Gbps SATA drive subsystem with RAID control capabilities. The ARC-5040 unleashes a truly innovative multiple hosts (with 3.0Gbps eSATA, FireWire 800, iSCSI/AoE and USB2.0) solution for both PC and Mac. The eSATA port delivers in excess of 220 MB per second (MB/sec) sustained RAID 0 reads and over 210 MB/sec RAID 0 sequential writes. High transfer rates make ARC-5040 well suited for audio/video application especially the rapidly growing demand from the Mac Video Editing markets. The Intelligent cooling continuously adapts to environmental conditions by automatically controlling the speed of the cooling fans. This super silent design, optimizing balance between noise reduction and necessary cooling, help the resellers to offer the cost effective storage solution to the end customers.

The ARC-5040 supports multiple host interfaces; eSATA, FireWire 800, iSCSI/AoE or UBS2.0 that can work currently at the same time without any limitation. With port multiplier SATA host, eSATA (3.0Gbps) host channel can support multiple volumes (up to 8). FireWire 800 can support up to 2 volumes. iSCSI/AoE and USB2.0 host channels can also support up to 16 volumes. iSCSI/AoE host will be available on Feb-2010. Up to 16 volumes can be created on each ARC-5040 RAID subsystem. Multiple host interfaces make ARC-5040 RAID subsystem well suited for professionals who need large capacity and exceptional performance with connectivity.

The ARC-5040 incorporates onboard high performance 400MHz storage processors and on-board 128MB DDR2-400 SDRAM memory to deliver true hardware RAID. It can be configured to RAID levels 0, 1, 10, 1E, 3, 5, 6, Single Disk or JBOD. The subsystem unit is the most cost-effective SATA disk drive RAID subsystem with completely integrated high-performance and data-protection capabilities, which meet the performance and features of a midrange storage product at an entry-level price.

Configuration and monitoring can be managed either through the LCD control panel, RS232 port or Ethernet port. The firmware also contains an embedded terminal emulation via the RS-232 port. The firmware-embedded Web Browser-based RAID manager allows local or remote to access it from any standard internet browser via a LAN port. The RAID subsystem also supports API library for customer to write its own monitor utility.

Cebit Hannover Germany, March 4, 2008 -

Areca Technology Corporation (ARECA), a leading provider of internal RAID Controller, external RAID controller and PCI-X/PCIe RAID controllers with Intel RAID 6 inside, today announced that its first family ARC-1680ix PCIe SAS RAID controllers have featured with 8/12/16/24 internal port and 4 external port SAS connectors. The family controllers can leverage with the existing 8/12/16/24-port SATA enclosure available from chassis providers such as Advanced Industrial Computer, Chembro, Ci Designs and TST.

The SAS RAID controllers raise the standard to higher performance levels with several enhancements including Intel new high-performance 1200MHz IOP348 I/O Processor, a DDR2-533 memory architecture and PCIe x8 Link host interface bus interconnection. ARC-1680ix-12/16/24 series include one DIMM socket with default 512MB of ECC DDR2-533 SDRAM with optional battery backup module, upgrade to 4GB. The ARC-1680ix-8 low profile board default supports 256MB on-board memory.The SAS interface supports both SAS disk drives for data-intensive applications, and Serial ATA (SATA) drives for low-cost bulk storage of reference data. Applications that benefit most features from these controllers include NAS, server RAID solutions, supercomputing, near-line backup, web servers, security systems and streaming applications.

The SAS RAID controllers can also provide RAID levels 0, 1, 10, 3, 5, 6, 30, 50, 60, Single Disk or JBOD for maximum configuration flexibility. The SAS RAID controller supports broad operating system including Vista/2003/XP/2000, Linux (Open Source), FreeBSD (Open Source), Solaris (Open Source), Mac and more, along with key system monitoring features such as enclosure management(SES2, SMP & SGPIO) and SNMP function. The Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard has included the driver on its kernel tree. Our products and technology are based on extensive testing and validation process; same as Areca SATA ll RAID adapter field-proven compatibility with operating systems, motherboards, applications and device drives.

Normally, customers need to add one separated SAS expander board or backplane with SAS expander to meet the high port count enclosure. They need different backplane or other expander board occupied one extra slot comparing the currently SATA solution. Since the SAS expanders handle the compatibility of disk belonged the expander, user needs to get the support from both the SAS RAID adapter and expander board vendors. Areca ARC-1680ix series have integrated the expander on the controller to meet sever RAID vendors without worrying the compatibility. User can support up to (128) SAS/SATA ll peripheral devices using the external 4 port.

Taipei, Taiwan, November 16, 2007 -

Areca Technology Corporation (ARECA), today announced that their SAS and SATA ll RAID driver has been integrated directly into the Red Hat 4.6 (and later), allowing future versions of RHEL operating systems to support Areca's entire family PCI-X and PCI-Express series of high performance SAS and SATA ll RAID controllers.

Areca drivers were officially merged in the 2.6.19 Kernel tree. Areca RAID controller drivers have been out Linux for a while already, it is actually irritating our customer that Red Hat does not provide included our driver. Our controllers perform even better than any other rival SATA raid card in the market. Customer current uses Areca cards running RHEL4.5 or previous version and updating a kernel is a pain since users also have to go through the extra step of manually building and installing the driver.

Now, after Red Hat has included a back ported patch Areca 2.6.19 driver on the update 1 releases of RHEL5 which bases on the kernel 2.6.18-53.e15. Today Red Hat once again has included a back ported patch Areca 2.6.19 driver into the update 6 releases of RHEL4 which bases on the kernel 2.6.9-67.EL. That means Areca fully series 4-, 8-, 12-, 16-, 24-port SAS and SATA RAID controller works on the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4.6 without an additional driver for the kernel. Now, the operating systems from the following version beginning have included Areca PCI-X and PCI-Express 4-, 8-, 12-, 16-, 24-ports SAS and SATA RAID controller comes in their kernel.

Driver into Kernel (Areca 4-,8-, 12-, 16-, 24-port SAS and SATA RAID controller)

BSD/FreeBSD:	FreeBSD 5.5/6.2
BSD/OpenBSD:	OpenBSD 4.1
Linux Kernel:	2.6.19-RC1(2006/10/5)
Linux/Debian:	Debian 2.6.18-2
Linux/Gentoo:	Gentoo 2007.0 (2.6.19)
Linux/Ubuntu:	Ubuntu 6.10 9 (2.6.19)
Linux/Redhat/Fedora:	Fedora Core 8.0
Linux/RedHat/RHEL:	RHEL 5.1 (2.6.18-53.e15, Backport)
Linux/RedHat/RHEL:	RHEL 4.6 (2.6.9-67.EL, Backport)
Linux/CentOS:	CentOS 5.1/CentOS4.6
NAS/FreeNAS:	FreeNAS 0.68
NAS/OpenFiler:	OpenFiler 2.2 (2.6.17, Backport)
NAS/Open-e-NAS:	Open-e-NAS
MAC OS X:	MAC OS X 10.5 Leopard
Wasabi Systems Storage Builder:	IP-SAN 3.0(NetBSD Kernel)

Taipei, Taiwan, November 6, 2007 -

Areca Technology Corporation (ARECA), a leading provider of internal and external RAID controllers, today announced Apple OS X Leopard default has integrated Areca driver for supporting its line of Intel IOP based SATA RAID and SAS RAID Host controllers on. For Mac users, they can choose a full of series of high-performance RAID controllers from SATA or SAS environments now, and get advantage of easy installing Areca's Intel IOP based PCI-Express series 4/8 SATA RAID controller and PCI-Express series 4/8 SAS RAID controller with this integration driver.

Areca Engineer has well experienced in providing driver to the Power Mac G5 and Mac Pro, and now the Apple OS X Leopard default driver supported can add Areca volume set on the bootable device, it's listing on the Mac Pro computer. (Currently, Mac OS X 10.4 can not be installed directly to the Areca controller's volume and boot up from the volume.) Areca RAID controller can only use as a secondary storage. All Intel Macs supports EFI BIOS to boot (not Open Firmware, which was used for PPC Macs) the system. Areca also has supported the EFI BIOS on its fully series PCIe SAS and SATA RAID controller.

The Areca external low-profile RAID controllers provide 3Gbps SATA II or SAS/SATA connectivity for each port and bring a new level of flexibility for data transport. These high-speed RAID controllers enable customers to support multi-stream uncompressed video editing workflows. The external PCIe controller can offer up to eight SATA ports or SAS/SATA ports; two external SFF-8088 connectors with each SATA II port or SAS/SATA ll port at up to 3 Gbps. The SAS/SATA RAID controller can support up to 128 devices when connected through SAS expanders. These ports are independently controlled to maximize performance at all times. It can enable RAID arrays to be fully utilized as high-performance, scalability and reliability storage on Mac Pro systems. It also can meet a clear need for high performance, cost-effective RAID-protected storage for Mac-based digital content creators and editors. The designed for content creation professionals who have outgrown their current array of external FireWire drives, and are ready to explore the world of high-resolution media.

The third party Hot-swappable external enclosures provide effectively unlimited storage capacity, as users are not limited to the internal drive bays provided with the basic Mac system. With our serial interface, enclosure can support fault and activity in each port for SATA RAID controller solution. Designed to increase the performance and lower the cost of digital video and streaming media applications, the introduction of Areca external RAID storage solutions has led to a rapid rises in implementations. The controller with third party external enclosure is committed to offering high-quality, cost effective workflow solutions for post, film, broadcast and digital music production.

Taipei, Taiwan, September 27, 2006 -

Areca Technology Corporation, a leading provider of internal and external SATA II RAID controllers with RAID 6 functionality, today announced it has demonstrated the first PCI-Express to SATA II RAID controller solution using Areca's field-proven RAID 6 technology. Designed to keep today's business data completely protected and constantly accessible, the Areca ARC-1280 solution supports 12, 16 and 24 SATA II peripheral devices on a single host adapter and is based on the Intel® IOP341 I/O Processor for optimized performance.

"Most organizations have employed RAID technologies and consider it critical for effective data management in today's computing environments,"said Billion Wu, CEO, Areca Technology Corporation. "Today, however, these computing environments are further characterized by larger-capacity disk drives, enclosures with more disks packed into them, and increased shared storage. With Areca's cost-effective and innovative RAID 6 technology combined with the RAID 6 hardware acceleration of Intel's I/O processors, customers now have greater choices to meet the demands for increasingly fast, flexible and reliable data access."

The Areca ARC-1280 PCI-Express to SATA II RAID controller supports one DIMM socket with default 256 MB of ECC DDR2-533 SDRAM. Areca has benchmarked the ARC-1280 PCI-Express to SATA II RAID controller using the 800 MHz Intel IOP341 I/O processor, measuring read and write cache transfer rates of 1624 MB/s and 1295 MB/s respectively with sustained RAID 6 write transfer rates of 771MB/s. The Areca ARC-1280 features a new DDR memory architecture (DDR2-533) and high performance PCI-Express bus interconnection, providing unsurpassed data availability. With the single adapter card form factor of the ARC-1280, it is now possible to match the interconnect speeds of 10Gbps iSCSI, dual 4Gbps Fibre Channel and Infiniband, commonly used in enterprise-level NAS or SAN arrays.

"Advanced products such as the Areca ARC-1280 PCI-Express RAID host adapter with 24 SATA disk drives are exceeding the performance of today's storage sub-systems,” said Mike Wall, General Manager, Intel Storage Group Marketing. "With the single-chip Intel IOP341 I/O Processor, Areca is able to offer full-featured RAID 6 functionality and PCI-Express connectivity, allowing storage integrators the flexibility to create ever faster and higher performing systems. Areca has also substantially reduced their time-to-market by basing their new IOP341 design on their field-proven firmware, host drivers and utilities that they migrated from their IOP331 and IOP333 based cards."

The Areca ARC-1280 PCI-Express to SATA II RAID controller is expected to begin shipping in early October 2006.

Taipei, Taiwan, May 31, 2005 -

Areca Technology Corporation, a leading provider of internal and external SATA ll RAID controllers with RAID 6 function, at Computex today announced that its ARC-6080 RAID controller has featured with High Performance Architecture RAID. In the RAID 5 configuration primary performance tests, Areca’s new external RAID controller generated a sustained data transfer rate 692 MB/S Writes and 519 MB/S Reads. The All-Cache-Hit sequential data transfer rate is 723 MB/S Writes and 720 MB/S reads. This represents an almost 100% increase over current generation RAID controllers on the market.

This new controller is an essential building block in delivering state-of-the-art designs to stay ahead of unrelenting market demands for increased bandwidth. Additionally, the dual PCI-X internal bus, and DDR ll memory design will result in products with even greater price/performance for our OEMs, systems integrators and end users.

Areca’s product enhancement comes at a time when data-intensive applications such as digital video and disk-to-disk backup are pushing the limits of available bandwidth.

Areca has combined high performance 4Gb Fibre Channel architecture to deliver industry-leading levels of bandwidth for its ARC-6080 RAID controller. Each 4Gb host channel will deliver up to 400MB/s peak bandwidth. Customers historically relied on multiplexing two 2Gb Fibre Channel streams to deliver the bandwidth now available from a single 4Gb Fibre Channel connection. Applications requiring high-bandwidth streaming data can now develop storage solutions using 4Gb Fibre Channel host links not possible previously with 2Gb Fibre Channel infrastructure. As the entertainment industry moves towards high definition content delivery, special effects artists can work on true HD streams of over 320MB/s to their workstation on a single 4Gb wire.

The ARC-6080 is designed specifically to meet the applications such as streaming video on demand; medical imaging; data mining and data warehousing; and large databases driven by online transaction processing (OLTP).

This new member of the ARC-6080 family features 4Gb F/C host performance to increase system efficiency and performance. The ARC-6080 features high capacity expansion, with up to 16 hot-swappable SATA II hard disk drive bays in a Rackmount unit, scaling to a maximum storage capacity in the terabyte range.

The ARC-6080 supports RAID levels 0, 1, 1E, 3, 5 and 6 which the highest level of data protection to offer fault tolerant data protection and 100% transparency to the host operating system. It also supports auto rebuild, bad block auto-remapping, multiple RAID selection, Array roaming, controller redundancy option, capacity expansion, online volume set growth and online Stripe/RAID Level migration, JBOD function and exceptional manageability. It is the ideal storage solution for applications requiring high data throughput, continuous availability, and flexibility in configuration.

The controller raises the standard to higher performance levels with several enhancements including dual channel 4Gb Fibre Channel, PowerPC 440SP storage Processor, dual 133MHz/64-bit PCI-X, new memory architecture (DDR-ll 667) and Areca extreme performance RAID 6 engine. Intel is also planning to move an eight-port storage controller directly into the next generation XScale I/O Processors. Areca will leverage Intel next generation XScale I/O Processors in its future SAS RAID controller. Areca is convinced that the PowerPC 440SP and Intel line of XScale I/O Processors are the best choice of processors for using in RAID controllers.

Highest performance RAID 6 in Industry
SATA II 300 Gbps speed at all SATA II drive ports
Tolerates two disk failures simultaneously without losing data
Supports greater than 2TB per volume set and battery backup module
Firmware-embedded Web Browser-based RAID manager, SMTP manager, and SNMP agent via LAN port with no software required in the 12-/16- port controller

Taipei, Taiwan, October 27, 2004 -

Areca Technology demonstrated the PCI-Express/PCI-X to SATA RAID host adaptors, the industry's highest speed RAID 6 at Intel Developers Forum China and Taiwan held Oct 14-15 in Shenzhen, China and Oct 25-26 in Taipei, Taiwan, respectively.

The Areca PCI-X and PCI-Express SATA RAID controller comes in 4-, 8-, 12-, and 16-port configurations, but it promises to be much faster and to boast other improvements than their competitors, such as RAID 6, and SATA ll support. The new controllers are designed to support upcoming 64-bit computing applications. They support single volume set greater than 2TB via 64-bit LBAs on one controller. The Areca Series controllers are designed to protect the customer's investment in RAID. It offers online capacity expansion, RAID level Migration, Battery Backup Module, redundant flash image and enclosure management services via an integrated I2C bus. All those features come from its field-proven external RAID controller.

As storage capacities continue to increase rapidly, users need a greater level of disk drive tolerance. RAID 1 can provide greater fault tolerance, but it requires costly double disk drives on large volume sets. Users want the security of RAID 1 or better with an implementation cost similar to RAID 5. RAID 6 can offer fault tolerance greater than RAID 1 or RAID 5, while only consuming the capacity of two disk drives designated for the distributed parity data.

Areca has been leading industry technology for about 2 years, successfully developing the RAID 6 engine in Asia, which can tolerate two simultaneous drive failures without downtime or data loss. By implementing the RAID 6 engine, the RAID controllers see no performance sacrifice in multitasking environments. The new Areca RAID 6 engine is supported on its PC-X and PCI-Express SATA RAID controller and is also available in all its external RAID controllers. Customers who want to accommodate increasing disk drive capacities coupled with the lower performance and reliability metrics associated with some disk technologies such as ATA/SATA need powerful, high-performance, fault-tolerant protection found in RAID. As ATA /SATA drive densities reach 320GB and beyond, conventional parity protection techniques such as RAID 5 decrease in their calculated effectiveness, and RAID 6 technology becomes an essential ingredient to deliver enterprise-level availability. Assuming 500 GB drives, NetApp engineers calculate that, without dual parity, 5% of RAID rebuilds would fail. NetApp also ships the double-fault function as the default setting on its NearStore line of low-end filers. Intel will have the RAID 6 engine in its next generation 80331/80332 IOP processors.

The 12- and 16- port controller firmware also embeds the following features:

The firmware contains Web Browser-based RAID manager that allows local or remote accessfrom any standard web browser via a LAN or WAN with no required software or patches.
The firmware contains SMTP manager monitors that all system events and users can select where either single or multiple user notifications can be sent via "Plain English" e-mails.
The firmware-embedded SNMP agent allows remote monitoring via LAN with no SNMP agent required.