HBA 1000 FAQs

Product & Features

The new HBA 1000 product line features the higher performance 12Gb/s SAS storage interface with the high performance levels of Microsemi SmartIOC ASIC technologies. The convergence of these elements revolutionizes performance and assures ease of use with future Microsemi Adaptec storage products through common Adaptec drivers and management tools.

Five specific models make up the HBA 1000 product line. All have the same 8 lane PCIe Gen 3 host interface in a compact MD2 form factor and a set of common software, drivers and tools. The model differences lie in their SAS connectivity applications. There are internal and external mini-SAS HD connector 8 port models -- HBA 1000-8i and HBA 1000-8e; internal and external 16 port models -- HBA 1000-16i and HBA 1000-16e; and one combination model with 8 internal and 8 external ports -- HBA 1000-8i8e.

At the highest level all the announced 12Gb/s HBAs map PCIe Gen3 to SAS 3 standard protocols. In that, the difference comes down to the pricing advantage of the HBA 1000. But to discerning customers, the differences at the second level are more compelling. The higher port count HBA 1000-16i and HBA 1000-16e demonstrates the benefits of the single Microsemi ASIC design. This results in HBA 1000 series low profile MD2 form factor, whose smaller size gives flexibility in mounting for the broadest applications. The lower power requirements result in smaller heat generation that create less stress on host cooling systems and lower overall operating temperatures that benefit the reliability of all system components.

The performance observed in most systems is largely independent of the HBA 1000 models in actual system use. With small numbers of devices, usually the devices themselves are the limiting element. With very fast or large numbers of slower devices, the PCIe bus or the host demand itself becomes the limiting factor. This is true for both sustained data transfer rates at about 85% of PCIe theorectical maximums — 6.8MB/s, or transactions at about 1.3 million, 4K block size I/Os. Observed performance scales linearly toward these limits as individual devices are added.

In addition to superior scalability and performance, the 16 port HBA 1000 models consume 60% less power on average than competitive HBAs, thanks to the power-efficient Microsemi SmartIOC. The specific comparison is based on an average of various 16 port HBA configuration – HBA 1000 Series 16 port models: 11.45W and Competitor's HBA 16 port models: 27.8 W.

The Legacy BIOS supports up to 4 controllers and uEFI can support up to 64 controllers.

The HBA can support the mixing of 6Gb/s and 12Gb/s SAS devices, however it is not recommended from a best practices viewpoint. The mixing of different speed devices can lead to performance issues due to the limitations of the slower targets because applications expect devices logically grouped together to have similar performance characteristics.

The HBA 1000 is backward compatible all the operating systems previously supported by Adaptec's 7H, 6Gb/s SAS product line. Initial support for Microsoft Windows, Red Hat, SuSE, VMware ESXi, Ubuntu, and CentOS are supported with more OS support in the next release. For a complete list of specific operating system versions and drivers, please visit ASK Answer ID 17431.

maxView Storage Manager is a web-based utility enabling remote management, monitoring, and configuration through secure, encrypted communication and easily integrates with third-party clients via SMI-S.

ARCCONF (Command Line Interface – CLI) - Text-based command line interface that provides the same functions as maxView Storage Manager in environments where a GUI is not available.

uEFI/HII support – HII (Human Interface Infrastructure) is an API that allows integration of third-party configuration tools into motherboard system BIOS.

BIOS configuration utility (ACU) – used for quick and easy local setup without booting the OS.

All configurations of the HBA 1000 family are warranted for 3 years against defects in materials or workmanship. Complimentary technical support period is offered from 2 years from the date of purchase. The customer may contact technical support within this two year period free of charge.

They will be available in numerous OEM products as their individual schedules dictate and from Microsemi Adaptec distributors worldwide by the end of December 2015. A list of distributors can be found at http://www.adaptec.com/en-us/wheretobuy/.

Applications

HBA 1000 products are designed to deliver "pure" connectivity while not limiting performance between host and storage devices. Therefore they do not claim to add "bells and whistles" themselves, but rather encourage innovative systems that do. In today's environment, that generally translates to virtualized hosts with rich software features requiring connection to a variety of storage devices, or storage subsystems, optimized to the application.

The HBA 1000 is both SAS 3.0 and PCIe 3.0 compliant, but system applications can be complex and unique product offerings are available. A list of products verified to be compatible with the HBA 1000 family is located at www.adaptec.com/compatibility.

There are no unique cable requirements for connecting to the HBA 1000 12Gb/s SAS ports. All models of the HBA 1000 are compliant with the SAS 3.0 standard connector callouts: internal connections use SFF 8643 connectors and external connections use SFF8644 connectors, collectively referred to as "HD Mini" SAS Connectors.

Cables used with Adaptec Series 8 RAID controllers, SmartRAID and SmartHBA are all also compatible with the HBA 1000. A list of Adaptec cables can be found at www.adaptec.com/cables.

Yes, the HBA 1000 is supported inbox in the most popular Linux operating systems.

Obviously, the HBA 1000 backward compatibility to 6Gb/s SAS enables it to also be connected to 'value' based SSDs with SATA interfaces. In combination with an Adaptec 82885T, 'edge buffering' can almost double the number of effective 6Gb/s devices that can be connected to the system. The additional device performance can then be scaled by the HBA 1000 up to the PCIe limited performance.