24 Overview
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PERC 3 Overview
The Dell™ PowerEdge™ Expandable RAID Controller 3 (PERC 3) PCI
card is a high-performance, intelligent peripheral component interconnect
(PCI)-to-SCSI host adapter with RAID control capabilities. PERC 3
provides system availability, high performance, and fault-tolerant disk
subsystem management. PERC 3 is an ideal RAID solution for the internal
storage of Dell’s workgroup, departmental, and enterprise systems. PERC 3
offers a cost-effective way to implement RAID in a server.
The PERC 3/QC low voltage differential (LVD) PCI RAID card provides
four SCSI channels. The PERC 3/DC and PERC 3/DCL LVD PCI RAID
card provides two SCSI channels. The PERC 3/SC LVD PCI RAID card
provides one SCSI channel.
NOTE: The information
in this document applies
to PERC 3/QC, PERC
3/DC, PERC 3/DCL and
PERC 3/SC.
With LVD, you can use cables up to 25 meters long. Throughput on each
SCSI channel can be as high as 160 MB/s. PERC 3 supports both an LVD
SCSI bus and a single-ended SCSI bus.
PERC 3 64-bit LVD is a high-performance, intelligent PCI-to-SCSI host
adapter with RAID control capabilities. PERC 3 64-bit LVD requires no
special motherboard PCI expansion slot.
PERC 3 Features
The PERC 3 features include:
• Wide Ultra3 LVD SCSI performance of up to 160 MB/s
• PERC 3/QC and PERC 3/DC support 128 MB of synchronous
dynamic random access memory (SDRAM.)
• The PERC 3/DCL supports 64 MB of SDRAM.
• The PERC 3/SC supports 32 MB of SDRAM.
• 64-bit PCI host interface (only on PERC 3/QC and PERC 3/DC)
• The PERC 3/QC, PERC 3/DC and PERC 3/DCL have an on-board
i960RN processor to improve controller performance and offload host
Central Processing Unit (CPU.)
• The PERC 3/SC has a on-board i960RM processor to improve
controller performance and offload host CPU.