AMCC 3ware 9000 obtains Microsoft certification

Applied Micro Circuits Corp. (AMCC) has received a Microsoft WHQL (Windows Hardware Quality Lab) certification for its 3ware 9000 series of high performance SATA RAID controllers. According to AMCC, the entire line of Serial ATA and Parallel ATA RAID controllers including the 9000, 8000, and 7000 series are Microsoft WHQL certified for OEM design-in qualifications to ensure a higher standard of storage compatibility, reliability, and interoperability on the Windows platform.

The Microsoft WHQL qualification provides assurance that hardware is compatible with Microsoft OSs. The process examines hardware through compatibility testing to improve the user experience by ensuring the product will be stable when running Windows.

The latest family of SATA controllers, based on AMCC's innovative StorSwitch switched RAID architecture, provides scaleable capacity up to 3.6 TB per controller, using 300GB drives, and total system capacity limited only to available PCI slots. The 3ware 9000 delivers substantial performance increases over previous industry leading 3ware RAID controllers. 3ware's advanced hardware RAID architecture features an on-board processor and an integrated RAID ASIC that offloads RAID controller functions from the host CPU, dedicating the server processing to its core applications and enhancing overall system performance.