Premium Controllers Under Scrutiny: Ultra160 RAID Adapters from Adaptec and LSI

Adaptec SCSI RAID 2110S

The controller itself is designed for 64 bit PCI ports (see picture), but nevertheless also functions in 32 bit environments, provided that they conform to PCI standard 2.2. At 32 bit and 66 MHz, 266 MB/s can be sent via the PCI bus; at 64 bit, even as much as 528 MB/s. These are, however, configurations that hardly anyone has set up on his/ her home PC.

Due to its slim construction, the 2110S can also be used in low-profile rack systems. The integrated cache memory on the right-hand side is also clearly visible. The large chip in the middle is Intel's 80302, otherwise known as Zion, an RISC processor that relieves the system processor of all tasks involving data allocation and parity information (XOR acceleration). The actual controller chip - made by Adaptec - is located on the far left-hand side. On the right side there is an integrated cache memory of 32 MB.

Further information on this product can be found on the manufacturer's website .

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Patrick Schmid
Editor-in-Chief (2005-2006)

Patrick Schmid was the editor-in-chief for Tom's Hardware from 2005 to 2006. He wrote numerous articles on a wide range of hardware topics, including storage, CPUs, and system builds.