Highlights
✵ Supports up to 8 bays PCIe Gen5 x4 M.2 device interface
✵ Up to 4x 2280 FF and 4x 22110 FF
✵ 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
✵ Redundant flash image for adapter availability
✵ Hardware secure boot ready
✵ In-box NVMe driver support for Windows, Linux, FreeBSD and VMware
✵ Advanced, intelligent thermal solution to control fan speed
✵ Support off module power loss protection (PLP) saves data issued without data loss at power fail using optional CBM module
PCIe Gen 5.0 M.2 NVMe Hardware RAID
ARC-1689-8N presents the advanced hardware RAID technology in enhanced performance of using 8 Bays Gen5 x4 M.2 NVMe. The hardware RAID adapter support off module power loss protection (PLP), and ARC-1886-CBM hold up feature for guaranteed data protection protection. This is designed in a PEX89048 switch, high-performance hardware RAID engine and 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-1689-8N H/W RAID Adapter | ARC-1389-8N Switch Adapter |
| Form Factor | 107.2(H) x 262(L) mm | |
| PCIe Switch Chip | PLX89048 Gen5 48 lanes /high-performance H/W RAID engine | |
| Host Interface | PCIe Gen5 x16 Lanes | |
| Device Connector | 8 x M.2 Connector | |
| Device Interface | PCIe Gen 5.0 x4 (NVMe) | |
| Max NVMe Support | Up to 4x 2280 FF and 4x 22110 FF | |
| RAID Level | 0, 1 (Simple/Multi Mirroring), 10, Single Disk (Single/Dual/Triple) or JBOF |
N/A (W/O RAID function on GUI) |
| Power Loss Protection (PLP) | Yes (need to install ARC-1886-CBM) | |
| Device Driver | In-box (Native) NVMe Driver | |
| Software Package | Same as ARC-1886 Tri-Mode Adapter | |
| Power Consumption | Approximately 14 Watts (without M.2 drive) | |
Unleash Extreme Performance
Unprecedented Performance
ARC-1689 PCIe Gen 5.0 x4 M.2 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-1689-8N is the incredibly powerful Broadcom PEX89048 PCIe switch chip and high-performance hardware RAID 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-1689-8N 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-1689-8N delivers ultra-high performance M.2 NVMe storage devices on a single PCIe Gen5 x16 slot. With a single ARC-1689-8N RAID adapter, system integrators can take full advantage of 8x PCIe Gen 5.0 x4 M.2 NVMe drives.
Off Module Power (OMP) Loss Protection
An enterprise storages need to ensure data integrity in the event of power losses and system crashes. The Power Loss Protection (PLP) is a hardware and firmware solution on the ARC-1689-8N RAID adapter to ensure that the NVMe SSDs integrity is maintained should a power loss event occur. With corresponding protective mechanisms, the content of these unwritten cached data in the NVMe internal cached SDRAM would be lost when there is a complete AC power failure or a brief unexpected power outage. For that reason, a cache backup module (CBM) protects the integrity of the NVMe internal cached data on ARC-1689-8N RAID adapter by providing backup power. The cache backup module has built-in functionality to charge the supercapacitor pack automatically and to communicate supercapacitor pack status information to the RAID adapter.
Launch the web browser-based MRAID storage manager to check the power loss event.
(Breadcrumb-Trail: 'Information' > 'RAID Set Hierarchy' > 'Device Information' > 'Unsafe Shutdowns')
SED-Based Encryption
The ARC-1689-8N 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-1689-8N 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
The ARC-1689 NVMe RAID adapter supports the system's UEFI Secure Boot function. Secure Boot is a security feature that prevents malicious software from loading during startup. As a security standard, UEFI Secure Boot ensures that only trusted software is executed at boot, protecting against attacks that modify system firmware or bootloaders
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 to manage and monitor ARC-1689-8N RAID adapter. 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-1689-8N RAID adapter. In-band management uses a proxy agent HTTP management software (ArcHTTP) running on a data host to communicate with an ARC-1689-8N 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-1689-8N to a computer that supports PCIe Gen 5.0 X16 slot. Below is the test result on the new AMD.
