SATA RAID 5 controller for FreeBSD

[Samuel Clements]

>I am looking for supported RAID 5 controller for FreeBSD and
>I am very puzzled after reading all the specs and descrioptions.
>
>I haven't found any SATA RAID 5 controller in the FreeBSD
>supported Hardware list, but some manufacturer claim they
>support FreeBSD.
>
>SO far i have found
>1) Promise FastTrak SX4 (around 200$)
>2) HighPoint RocketRaid 1640 (aorund 150$ hard to find)
>3) EscaladeR 8506 4-port  one (around 500$)

The Intel SRCS14L is also supported. 
http://www.intel.com/design/servers/buildingblocks/srcs14l/ This should use 
the same driver (iir) as the U32's which we use all over the place. The 
management software (storcon) looks just like the BIOS of the card when you 
run it! Pretty neat.  You should be able to pick one up retail for about 
$290US.

>HightPoint and Escalade AFAIK are well supported by FreeBSD.
>FreeBSD 4.8 support is promised in Promise :) FastTrak.
>
>Here is the dilema:
>
>As i have read SX4 is not a hardware raid, it uses server's CPU to
>do XOR calculations. Which is not good, because it means if
>CPU is loaded RAID permonace will degrade. But SX4 has HUGE
>cache memory (up to 256MB SDRAM) and FRAM for internal
>queue storage.


This card has 64M built on and my understanding of RAID is that its hard 
(not impossible mind you!) to get significant performance benefits going 
above that. This card as a dedicated Intel 80303 CPU for doing the XOR calcs.

   -Sam Clements