HighPoint has been designing and manufacturing Marvell based storage solutions for well over a decade. We’ve successfully deployed millions of units worldwide, and offer comprehensive product portfolios for enterprise, industrial and consumer applications.

Dedicated, in-house hardware and software engineering teams are ready to assist customers develop unique products based on Marvell Storage and Connectivity interface controllers. HighPoint can integrate a wide range of Marvell storage and connectivity controller IC’s into a custom designed and manufactured PCIe RAID controller, host bus adapter or backplane.

Industry Proven RAID Technology

SAS/SATA Solutions: For over two decades, HighPoint’s industry proven RAID Technology has powered a wide range of Marvell-based 12G/6G SAS and 6GSATA storage solutions across Intel and AMD platforms, and fully compatible with all major operating systems including Linux, macOS and Windows.

Hardware RAID:  HighPoint can integrate Marvell’s Hardware RAID IC’s into a four or 8-port SAS/SATA RAID controller, capable of supporting one or more RAID 0, 1, 5, 6, 10 50 and JBOD configurations, and natively supported by all major PC-based operating. The PCB design incorporates dedicated processing and caching resources which enable the RAID controller to operate independently and minimize the impact of storage related I/O on the host platform.

DV Mode (Digital Video-Mode) – DV Mode is a HighPoint caching technology developed for Hardware RAID controllers. This technology was originally developed to help streamline large file transfers for RAID 5 and 6 arrays comprised of SAS or SATA hard disk drives, by minimizing latency. It is most often used for professional media applications (such as video editing and production).

NVMe Solutions: HighPoint can integrate Marvell NevoX NVMe technology into a custom designed and manufactured PCIe RAID controller for OEM/ODM customer projects. Our current platform supports up to four M.2 device channels via a PCIe 3.0 x8 or x4 host interface, and can incorporate Marvell’s 8NR2241 NVMe switch chipset. This unique solution offers true driverless installation for the end customer; with integrated RAID 0, 1 and 10, boot capability for Linux and Windows operating systems, and targeted at x86 hardware platforms.

Cross-Sync: Cross-Sync is proprietary RAID technology and is exclusive to HighPoint storage solutions. Cross-Sync combines two or more RAID controllers to act as a single device, effectively doubling the potential transfer bandwidth and storage capability.

Custom PCB Design

The PCB layout can be tailored to satisfy the requirements of specific industrial applications, for compliance with commercially available PCIe 3.0/4.0 capable motherboards, or unique hardware environments. Customers can specify the port count and port layout, form factor, host interface, storage / connectivity interface, and LED indication or monitoring ports.

• PCIe Gen4 or Gen3 (x4, x8, or x16 lanes)
• Form Factor: Half-Height, Full-Height, Custom Dimensions

• Storage Interface: NVMe (M.2), SAS (12G/6G), SATA (6G)
• Connectivity Interfaces: SFF-8639, SFF-8643, SFF-8644, SFF-8654, SFF-8611, SFF-8087, SFF-8088, SFF-8482, SATA
• Port count: Up to 32 Ports (per device)
• Internal /External / Hybrid Port Configurations
• PCIe Switch implementation - bandwidth control and allocation to each device port
• Custom OS driver support for Windows, Linux & macOS
• Complete RAID Management modules & API Packages (GUI, CLI, Web-Based)
• Comprehensive Branding Services –PCB color, Logo integration & silk screening services
• Bus connection layout (H vs. standard PCIe)

Electronic Board Production & Manufacturing Expertise

Since our establishment in 1995, HighPoint has successfully designed, qualified, manufactured and deployed a wide range of storage controller chipsets, electronic boards such as PCI and PCIe controller cards and AIC’s, storage docks, hubs, adapters, docking stations, tower enclosures and rackmount chassis.
 

HighPoint can guide clients throughout a product’s entire development cycle - from the initial planning and prototype stages through final production. We have ISO standard factory support to ensure high-quality production flow, and offer comprehensive Service packages that cover all aspects of hardware and software design, qualification, and manufacture.

RAID Device Driver Development & Software Management Packages

Windows Platforms

HighPoint has been a certified Microsoft developer since our inception, and are experts in all things Windows from the early stages of 3.11 to the recent release of Windows 11. We develop SAS and SATA device drivers for all major Windows operating system platforms including Windows 11 and 10, and Server 2022 and 2019. In addition Several of our long running SAS/SATA Marvell product lines and Hardware RAID series are natively supported by current Windows OS.

macOS

HighPoint is a certified macOS developer and has actively supported the platform since the early 2000’s. macOS 10.x and 11.x device drivers are available for our SAS, SATA and Hardware RAID Marvell-based storage solutions.             

Linux Platforms

HighPoint has been developing Linux device driver and management interfaces for over 15 years. Our Marvell-based hardware RAID and NVMe solution packages are natively supported by Linux distributions that utilize kernel v3.10 and later.In addition, we offer Binary driver development services, and Open Source driver packages for Marvell-based RAID solutions not natively supported by the kernel. 

Binary Driver Packages: Binary driver releases are developed specifically for a particular distribution and kernel. Binary drivers are easy to install, even for novice Linux users. The downside is that they are not configurable and only support a specific version of Linux; any distribution or kernel update requires a new binary driver from the manufacturer.

Open Source Packages: Standard Open Source driver releases offer more flexibility, provided the end-customer is an experienced Linux user and administrator. Open source packages allow administrators to compile new drivers as needed. However, the packages require that the customer be familiar with manual compilation, the use of command lines, scripting, and the required toolsets.

Open Source Package (Auto-Compile): HighPoint’s Auto-Compiling Open Source package is ideal driver for most Linux applications. The administrator need only install the root package; the driver will handle all future updates automatically, such as checking/monitoring the status of kernel releases, preparing the system environment, recompiling a new driver, and installation.

Management Suites

HighPoint’s WebGUI and CLI Management software is fully compatible with our Marvell-based storage products and solutions.

Customizable API Packages –API (Application Programmable Interface) packages are available for OEM/ODM customers, and can be tailored to accommodate a wide range of products and solutions. Our API packages allow OEM/ODM customers to customize our WebGUI and CLI interfaces by altering the layout and feature set, and incorporate unique branding.

Management Suite: Key Features

SHI – SHI is an acronym for Storage Health Inspector. SHI is an important feature of our WebGUI management software, as it enables customers to check and track the condition of storage media (hard drives, SSDs) via SMART attributes, in real-time. SHI is especially useful for NVMe storage applications, as it allows users to monitor the temperature and the TBW (total bytes written) status of each hosted NVMe SSD.

Event Log & Email Notification - The WebGUI and CLI management utilities include and Event Log with Error logging and Notification features. Users can configure the Event log to notify them in the case of an error, event or warning, via email.

SMART Monitoring - HighPoint RAID solutions utilize SMART technology to monitor the status of storage devices. The term “SMART” is an acronym (S.M.A.R.T) and refers to “Self-Monitoring Analysis and Reporting Technology”. It was originally associated with hard disk drives, but has since been adopted by other types of storage media such as SAS/SATA SSD’s and NVMe SSD’s.  

SMART data is conveyed to the user in the form of “attributes” – basically, the status of a particular hardware feature or condition (such as temperature, electrical statistics or errors associated with the drive’s behavior). SMART attributes provide a quick and simple way to check the status of a physical drive.

Auto-Rebuild - Auto-Rebuild is supported by all HighPoint RAID solutions, and is a RAID Management feature that enables a RAID solution to automatically initiate a rebuild process in the event of a disk failure. This feature is critical for many applications, as it ensures a redundant RAID array remains secure when direct administration or maintenance is not possible. 

Hot Replaceable - Hot Replaceable refers to a RAID controllers ability to recognize and utilize drives added “on the fly” to address a critical array, without direct input from an administrator. HighPoint RAID solutions, with the exception of some NVMe products, will periodically rescan all active device ports to check for the presence (or absence) of storage media.

Enclosure Management Integration

The WebGUI and CLI are capable of monitoring industry standard storage enclosures and chassis, and report the status of critical hardware componentry and environmental conditions.

Administrators can monitor the status of power supply units, voltage and the ambient temperature of storage enclosures. The WebGUI and CLI can be used to establish thresholds and enable warning systems to match the specific needs of a unique storage configuration.

RAID Roaming

HighPoint RAID Solutions support RAID Roaming. Our “Roaming” technology is comprised of two separate but related features, both of which were designed to streamline upgrade, recovery and replacement procedures.

The ability to move an array between different RAID controllers. RAID arrays created and hosted by HighPoint Marvell-based RAID solutions can be freely moved between products within the same family. In addition, customers can move existing RAID configurations to a new or updated HighPoint product that utilizes a Marvell controller IC. 

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The ability to change the drive order without damaging the array. For example the drive originally attached to “port 1” is moved to “port 4”, and vice-versa. Arrays created and hosted by HighPoint RAID solutions will remain intact even if the physical drive order is changed.