Highlights
✵ Supports up to 4x MCIO ports (dedicated PCIe Gen5 x8 per MCIO)
✵ Connection for up to 8x4, 16x2 and 32x1 NVMe SSD connect via direct cable or back/mid-plane
✵ PCIe 5.0 host interface, PCIe Gen5 x16 lanes at maximum transfer rate up to 512Gb/s
✵ Delivers high-speed performance with speeds of 60GB/s
✵ True hardware RAID protection for all valueable data
✵ Hardware-based RAID solution that supports RAID levels RAID levels 0, 1 (Simple/Multi Mirroring), 10, Single Disk(Single/Dual/Triple) or JBOF/AIC Mode
✵ SED support for hardware NVMe encryption capable drives
✵ Support for UEFI secure boot
✵ Redundant flash image for adapter availability
✵ Hardware secure boot ready
✵ In-box NVMe driver support for Windows, Linux, FreeBSD and VMware
PCIe Gen 5.0x16 NVMe Hardware RAID
ARC-1689-32I presents the advanced hardware RAID technology in enhanced performance of using 4x MCIO ports (dedicated PCIe Gen5 x8 per MCIO) device interface. The hardware RAID adapter is designed in PCIe 5.0 switch, high-performance hardware RAID engine, PCIe Gen 5.0 host/device interface and supports AIC mode or hardware RAID levels 0, 1 (Simple/Multi-Mirroring), 10, Single Disk (Single/Dual/Triple) or JBOD, allowing customers to build the high bandwidth, low-latency, scalable, cost-effective, and robust performance storage for ML/AI and HPC applications. The RAID adapter does not require a driver for operation or communication to attached NVMe drives. The RAID volumes are presented natively to the host and use the OS native NVMe drivers.
| PCIe Gen 5.0 x16 Fastest and Reliable NVMe Solution | ||
| Model Name | ARC-1689-32I H/W RAID Adapter | ARC-1389-32I Switch Adapter |
| Form Factor | LP-MD2 : 64.41(H) x 167.65(L) mm | |
| PCIe Switch Chip | PLX89048 Gen5 48 lanes /High-performance H/W RAID engine | |
| Host Interface | PCIe Gen5 x16 Lanes | |
| Device Connector | MCIO[x8] Connector | |
| Max NVMe Support | up to 8x4, 16x2 and 32x1 NVMe SSD Connection | |
| Device Interface | PCIe Gen 5.0 x4 (NVMe) | |
| RAID Level | 0, 1 (Simple/Multi Mirroring), 10, Single Disk (Single/Dual/Triple) or JBOF |
N/A (W/O RAID function on GUI) |
| Management Port | In-Band: PCIe/Out-of_Band:Lan Port | |
| Device Driver | In-box (Native) NVMe Driver | |
| Software Package | Same as ARC-1886 Tri-Mode Adapter | |
| Power Consumption | Worst Case: 23.7 Watts, Typical: 18 Watts | |
Unleash Extreme Performance
Unprecedented Speed
ARC-1689 PCIe Gen 5.0 x16 NVMe Hardware RAID adapter is built to deliver the unparalleled speed and data redundancy for your demanding workloads. The RAID adapter uses the PEX89048 PCIe 5.0 switch that provides a x16 PCIe 5.0, 32 GT/s interface to a host system with up to 32 PCIe 5.0 32 GT/s ports for NVMe device connection.
Powerful Broadcom PEX89048 Switch Chip Engine
At the heart of ARC-1689-32I is the incredibly powerful Broadcom PEX89048 PCIe switch chip and high-performance hardware engine, giving effortless performance as desirable. It delivers storage interface PCIe Gen 5 x4 NVMe, and the security of data protection. Damage in a software RAID is considered as the consumption of massive computation and memory bandwidth on the host. The ARC-1689 hardware RAID relieves the parity generation burden from the host and maximizes application processing performance.
High Bandwidth PCIe 5.0 Support
ARC-1689-32I supports PCIe Gen 5.0 X16, enabling extremely very high data bandwidth. This is critical for applications that demand significant bandwidth, such as ML/AI, HPC, and high-performance storage. It is designed to reduce latency, which is essential for real-time applications.
Professional Storage Connectivity
Comparing storage with SAS and SATA interface, ARC-1689-32I delivers ultra-high performance Gen4 x4 storage devices on a single PCIe Gen5 x16 slot. With a single ARC-1689-32I RAID adapter, system integrators can take full advantage of up to 8x4, 16x2 and 32x1 NVMe SSD connection via direct cable or back/mid-plane
SED-Based Encryption
The ARC-1689-32I RAID adapter firmware Security Function, together with self-encrypting drives (SEDs), secures a data in the NVMe drives from unauthorized access or modification resulting from theft, loss or repurposing of drives. Protection is achieved by the SED hard drive that automatically and continuously encrypts the data on the drive without any user interaction. Local key management in the controller is designed to protect data from security breaches with minimal cost and complexity. User can use ARC-1689-32I API code to design its own key management utility. It supports 128- and 256-bit encryption keys using AES (a key size of 128, or 256 bits), or password (a variable key size).
UEFI Secure Boot Capability
ARC-1689 NVMe RAID adapter supports system UEFI secure boot function. Secure Boot is a security feature designed to prevent malicious software from loading when your system starts up. UEFI Secure Boot is a security standard designed to make sure that a device boots using only software that is trusted. It prevents a class of attacks in which the attacker modifies the system software, rendering it untrustworthy.
In-Box (Native) NVMe Driver
The ARC-1689 NVMe RAID adapter goes with any standard Windows (10 or above), Linux(Kernel 3.10 or above), FreeBSD or VMware inbox NVMe drivers. You do not need a special driver to install the OS or data on the ARC-1689. In-box driver is a native driver that is supplied with the Operating System.
Effective Management Tool
Areca provides more flexible management tools comparing with others competitors to manage and monitor ARC-1886-xNxI RAID adapter.
• LAN Port: Out of Band Management (Without Disturb Host Access)
Lets you set up and manage RAID storage through Out-of-band web browser manager and ArcSAP utility
The ARC-1689-32I also offers an alternative out-of band method d for McRAID storage manager. User can access the built-in configuration without needing the ArcHTTP proxy server on the host system. The ARC-1689-32I has an RJ-45 connector out-of-band management port on the rear. You can monitor and manage an ARC-1689-32I RAID adapter using this dedicated management channel to manage the ARC-1689-32I RAID adapter without any host connection. It will also not disturb the host access when you monitor or manage the ARC-1689-32I RAID adapter.
• PCIe Bus
Lets you set up and manage RAID storage through In-band web browser manager and ArcSAP utility
You can configure in-band management for communication to travel over the PCIe bus path between a data host and ARC-1689-32I RAID adapter. In-band management uses a proxy agent HTTP management software (ArcHTTP) running on a data host to communicate with an ARC-1689-32I RAID adapter.
Web Browser-Based Management
McRAID storage manager is firmware-based utility, which is accessible via the web browser installed on your operating system. The web browser-based McRAID storage manager is a HTML-based application, which utilizes the browser (Safari, Edge and Mozilla etc) installed on your monitor station. It can be accessed through the in-band PCIe bus. The in-band PCIe bus method can launch the web browser-based McRAID storage manager via ArcHTTP proxy server.
User-Friendly Graphical-Based Management
Areca Single Admin Portal (ArcSAP) quick manager is an alternative graphical-based device management program specifically designed for use in managing and configuring RAID unit implemented using any of Areca RAID controllers. ArcSAP quick manager can scan for multiple RAID units in the local and remote systems and provide an effective mechanism to configure your RAID units.
Benchmark
Actual data rates may vary depending on operating environment, RAID mode, RAID configuration, NVMe model and NVMe performance. The best performance is installed the PCIe Gen 5 x4 NVMes and connect the ARC-1689-32I to a computer that supports PCIe Gen 5.0 X16 slot. Below is the test result on the new AMD.
