Supermicro's X6DHP-3G2, X6DHR-3G2 and X6DH3-G2 motherboards leverage the high performance Adaptec SAS ASIC as well as the market leading, industry-proven Adaptec HostRAID™ and storage management software. Based on internal testing, the Adaptec AIC-9410 8-Port ASIC delivers the highest Serial Attached SCSI streaming performance in the industry. To simplify storage management and reduce related costs, Adaptec SAS RAID and SATA RAID controllers operate under the same management software, Adaptec Storage Manager™. This management software makes RAID storage configuration and management intuitive and simple, and enables remote management, monitoring, and configuration of RAID arrays through secure, encrypted remote communications.

"The evolution from parallel SCSI technology to Serial Attached SCSI technology is a major one for the IT industry," said Charles Liang, president and CEO at Supermicro. "Now there's a big opportunity to gain a competitive edge against branded vendors by delivering high performance, more reliable and flexible storage solutions to meet a variety of price/performance needs. SAS technology allows a single platform to be used for both primary and secondary storage requirements. Mix-and-match SAS and SATA drives allow vendors to meet both the highest performance and reliability requirements for transaction-oriented applications as well as price conscious enterprise needs."

Liang continued, "For us, Adaptec is a great choice in a technology partner for Serial Attached SCSI for these critical motherboards. As a market leader and pioneer of SCSI technology, Adaptec is now leading the evolution to Serial Attached SCSI technology and together we are paving the way for the white box server suppliers."

Earlier this year Adaptec and Supermicro successfully launched the industry's first Serial ATA II (SATA II)-enabled motherboards configured for Zero Channel RAID (ZCR). Powered by Adaptec's SATA II ZCR controllers and industry-leading RAID software, these server solutions offer enterprises a cost-effective upgrade path to RAID 5, high-speed throughput, enhanced data protection, and greater scalability.

"Working together with Supermicro, we are regularly able to deliver industry first technology to the white box server market," said Tim Connolly, vice president of marketing for the components division of Adaptec. "Clearly the availability of these Supermicro motherboards with embedded Adaptec Serial Attached SCSI technology and RAID software is an indication that SAS has reached its next level of maturity and is ready for mass market deployment. We are pleased to expand our relationship with Supermicro to include the development of cost effective Serial Attached SCSI solutions that address the specific performance and price requirements."

Supermicro is currently in the process of launching a complete line of SAS-optimized solutions including servers, serverboards, chassis and storage mobile-racks. The X6DHP-3G2 serverboard leverages Adaptec SAS RAID technology to support dual 64-bit Xeon processors running at up to 3.60GHz with 2MB of L3 cache. Optimized for Supermicro's redundant-power 1U systems, the X6DHP-3G2 features 8 DIMM sockets for up to 16GB of ECC DDRII 400 memory and supports 4 internal SAS drives and 4 external links used for JBOD solutions. With onboard RAID 0 and 1 choices, the system provides even better performance and reliability. Other features include dual Gigabit LAN, 2 universal PCI-Express x8 or PCI-X slots, as well as a 1U IPMI 2.0 socket for server management with optional 3rd LAN support.