HighPoint has just unveiled its new Rocket PCIe Gen5 NVMe Switch and M.2 RAID AIC adapters, which support up to a whopping (and wallet-busting) 32 SSDs… with an insane 960TB of Gen5 SSD capacity per PCIe slot. Yes, 960TB of Gen5 SSDs in your system, in a single slot. Whaaaaat.
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We’ve already seen companies like OWC and Apex Storage offer PCIe Gen4 products that support 16 devices per PCIe slot, but HighPoint is the first to market with a PCIe Gen5 solution. It can house 32 SSDs and up to 960TB of Gen5 SSD storage. That’s huge.
The new HighPoint Rocket 7600 and Rocket 1600 series will target different markets. The Rocket 7600 series products are designed for edge servers based on Linux and Windows and high-performance PC systems. Meanwhile, the Rocket 1600 Gen5 adapters have been designed for the enterprise market.
Both of the new Gen5 Rocket adapters are powered by Broadcom’s new PEX89048 PCIe Switch IC, based on the PCIe Gen5 protocol and can use the 16 lanes of Gen5 goodness to its fullest. Broadcom’s 48-channel PEX89048 Switch IC provides 16 dedicated PCIe Gen5 lanes with up to 64TB/sec of bandwidth, supporting as many as 32 (!!!) NVMe M.2 SSDs per slot.
HighPoint explains its new Rocket 1600 PCIe Gen5 NVMe Switch Series AICs & Adapters: “HighPoint Rocket 1600 series switch AICs/adapters provide enterprise-class NVMe storage connectivity and administrative capability and are suitable for use with a wide range of industry-standard x86 server and workstation platforms. These versatile, high-performance AICs and Adapters are equipped with our revolutionary PCIe Gen5 Switch Architecture and are capable of directly supporting up to eight M.2, U.2/U.3 or E3.S SSDs, or as many as 32 NVMe devices via backplane connectivity. NVMe media hosted by Rocket 1600 Switch AIC/Adapters will be automatically recognized by any OS platform with Native NVMe driver support. This makes them an ideal for businesses and organizations seeking to enhance critical workflows with flexible, robust and easily managed Gen5 NVMe storage performance”.
As for the Rocket 7600 PCIe Gen5 NVMe RAID Series AICs & Adapters: “HighPoint RocketRAID 7600 PCIe Gen5 NVMe RAID AICs and Adapters are engineered to enhance the capabilities of Linux and Windows-based Edge Server and High-End workstation platforms. Built on the foundation of our Rocket 1600 Switch series product lines, each RAID AICs/Adapter is armed with industry proven RAID technology and an unparalleled storage health monitoring and management suite designed to maximize the performance, reliability and serviceability of NVMe arrays. Rocket 7600 Series AICs/Adapters can directly support up to eight M.2 or U.2/U.3/E3.S NVMe SSDs, and are ideal for professional and industrial workflows that require uncompromised Storage Performance with the flexibility of proven RAID technology and enhanced SED data protection”.
HighPoint’s new Gen5 adapters will begin shipping in Q3 2024, so we don’t have much longer to wait.