IBM 73H3560 Fast/Wide SCSI RAID Controller Card for RS/6000

Product Description

The IBM 73H3560 is a dedicated RAID controller card engineered to bolster the storage capabilities of the IBM RS/6000 server line. This controller utilizes the Fast/Wide SCSI-3 interface, which was a prevalent standard for high-performance storage in its time, offering increased bandwidth and connectivity options compared to narrower SCSI interfaces. The 'Fast' aspect refers to its support for higher transfer rates (e.g., 20 MB/s or 40 MB/s), while 'Wide' indicates its ability to use 16-bit data paths, significantly improving throughput. This card provides hardware-level RAID functionality, meaning it offloads the processing of RAID calculations from the main CPU. This results in improved system performance, especially under heavy I/O loads. It typically supports common RAID levels such as RAID 0 (striping for performance), RAID 1 (mirroring for redundancy), and RAID 5 (striping with parity for a balance of performance, redundancy, and capacity). This allows administrators to configure their SCSI disk arrays for optimal performance or data protection based on their specific requirements. Designed as a plug-in card for the RS/6000's expansion slots (likely PCI or PCI-X), the 73H3560 integrates seamlessly into the server's architecture. It enables the use of multiple SCSI hard drives to create fault-tolerant storage volumes, crucial for maintaining data availability and preventing data loss in critical business applications running on the RS/6000 platform. This controller represents a key component for enhancing the storage subsystem of these powerful workstations and servers.