HighPoint Rocket Series AICs HBAs Deliver NVMe Storage Performance for Any Platform and Application

HighPoint, Inc.‘s Rocket series AICs are the industry’s fastest NVMe AIC HBAs, and represent an efficient way to add maximized PCle Gen4 or Gen3 storage performance to any modern computing platform.

Rocket 1000 series AICs incorporate PCle switch technology to deliver leading performance and reliability, and are natively supported by all major OS platforms, and can be integrated into any x86 AMD and Intel, or ARM platform with a free PClex16 slot.

Rocket series NVMe AICs were designed to address the needs of solution providers and system integrators that cater to vertical marketplaces, from hyperscale servers to industrial server and workstations. They are for workflows that employ SDS suites, or rely on the OSs’s native storage management interface.

A selection of PCle Gen3 and 4 AICs are available with 4 and 8 dedicated device channels for M.2 and U.2/U.3 form factors, and are capable of supporting as much as 30TB/port; imagine 240TB of storage form a single add in card. Rocket 1000 series AlCs can be installed and used right out of the box, and can be integrated into about any modern computing environment.

Broadcom inside! NVMe board architecture guarantees maximum bus bandwidth for each device port

The company’s dual-width NVMe hardware architecture incorporates PCle switch technology to deliver leading performance, reliability, and storage capacity. Rocket series AICs leverage Broadcom Corp.‘s switch chipsets with proven SerDes and SRIS technology, to optimize signal integrity, reduce latency and maximize transfer throughput.

These ICs provide and abundance of electrical lanes: 48 for Gen4 and 32 for Gen3. This ensures bandwidth is never wasted; x4 lanes are always on tap for each device port. The highly flexible, performance-focused hardware architecture is unique to the firm’s NVMe solutions, and guarantees that maximum bandwidth is available to each SSD at all times. This combination enables Rocket series NVMe AICs to allocate a dedicated x16 lanes of Upstream bandwidth, and x4 lanes of downstream bandwidth to each NVMe device ports, and deliver transfer throughput up to 28GB/s for PCle Gen4 platforms, and up to 14GB/s for Gen3 systems – the maximum possible for a single-card application!

NVMe ACls are equipped with NVMe cooling systems
NVMe storage solutions can generate a considerable amount of waste heat under load, especially those that employ high-density dual-sided PCle Gen4 media. In an effort to protect this sensitive hardware, most SSDs will limit throughput when a temperature threshold has been crossed, using a technique known as ‘Thermal Throttling’. While an ideal failsafe, it can severely bottleneck transfer performance.

Rocket series NVMe connectivity AICs were designed to mitigate the threat of thermal throttling and excel in high ­stress computing environments. The company’s NVMe AIC products are equipped with 1 of 4 specialized cooling solutions.

Precision engineered ‘Ultra-Cooling’ fan system:
The firm’s NVMe Al Cs and enclosures are equipped with robust, high-quality, low-decibel cooling fans designed to rapidly inject and condense cool air within the enclosure chassis or casing, and expel waste heat from the ventilated drive trays or PCle bracket. The Ultra-Cooling fan system was engineered to perform optimally in demanding 24/7 workflows while generating minimal noise.

NVMe cooling solution:

• Silent running: The Rocket 1204 utilize a passive, completely silent cooling system and are for professional media workflows that demand a quiet, controlled work environment. This system combines a full-length anodized aluminum heatsink with high-efficiency thermal padding.
• Low-noise active cooling solution: Employed by the majority of our PCle Gen3 AICs, it ensures each hosted SSD consistently operates within the manufacturer’s recommended temperature thresholds, and is comprised of a full­ length anodized heat sink, thermal padding and robust, low-noise cooling fans.
• Hyper-cooling solution: Designed for PCle Gen4 M.2 media , this system leverages an anodized aluminum heatsink with one or more low-decibel cooling fans and high-efficiency thermal padding. It was designed to rapidly transfers waste heat away from sensitive hardware and ensure M.2 media always perform optimally, even under maximum load.

NVMe solution for SDS applications
Rocket series NVMe AICs are capable of maximizing x16 lanes of PCle Gen4 or 3 transfer bandwidth and allocate x4 dedicated lanes to each NVMe SSD; for workflows that employ SDS suites including VMware solutions, CEPH, Microsoft S2D, and other common SDS platforms. These environments require robust, uncompromised hardware connectivity to optimize storage performance for hyperscale servers and workstations. Rocket 1000 series AIC HBAs are natively supported hardware solutions; any hosted SSD will be automatically recognized as an independent, stand-alone drive, which can be easily partitioned and formatted using the platform’s SDS suite or default OS toolset.

Natively supported by all major OS platforms
Rocket series NVMe AICs are natively supported by all major OSs including Windows 11 and Server 2022, VMware ESXi, macOS, and popular Linux distributions such as RHEL and Ubuntu, and FreeBSD/FreeNAS platforms. The cards can be installed and used right out of the box, and require no additional device drivers or a dedicated software application.

Rocket series NVMe AICs are available direct from the company’s e-store and the firm’s certified global resale and distribution partners.