Adaptec SmartRAID 4300 Series for Scalable NVMe RAID
In The News | 12-08-2025 | By Matthew Walker
Key Things to Know:
- Up to 7× I/O performance boost with disaggregated architecture separating software and hardware components.
- Supports up to 32 CPU-attached NVMe® devices and 64 RAID arrays on PCIe® Gen 4 and Gen 5 platforms.
- Enterprise-grade security features including hardware root of trust, secure boot/update, attestation, and SED support.
- Comprehensive management suite with HTML5 GUI, CLI tools, remote/local management, and BMC integration.
Microchip Technology has introduced the Adaptec® SmartRAID 4300 series, a RAID-enabled NVMe® storage accelerator aimed at server OEMs, storage system providers, data centres and enterprise teams. The family brings a secure, software-defined approach to accelerating NVMe storage and improving overall system performance.
Across AI-driven and high-performance data centre environments, workloads continue to rise. Low-latency access to NVMe is becoming essential for training pipelines, inference clusters and scale-out databases. Organisations need storage that scales with modern PCIe® host platforms while maintaining enterprise-class reliability and security.
The SmartRAID 4300 series introduces a disaggregated architecture, separating software and hardware components to remove traditional bottlenecks. By leveraging host CPU resources alongside dedicated RAID acceleration hardware, it offers greater scalability, flexibility and performance for next-generation infrastructure.
Overcoming Traditional Storage Bottlenecks
The Adaptec® SmartRAID 4300 series marks a significant departure from conventional in-line RAID architectures by separating the Smart Storage platform’s software and hardware components. This disaggregated design enables the host CPU to manage data flows directly to NVMe® endpoints, while dedicated accelerator hardware offloads RAID parity operations.
The diagram below illustrates the SmartRAID 4300’s disaggregated architecture. Data flows directly from the host CPU to NVMe® SSDs over the PCIe® infrastructure, while parity-based XOR operations are offloaded to dedicated accelerator hardware. This separation streamlines throughput and eliminates the bottlenecks of traditional in-line RAID designs.
SmartRAID 4300 disaggregated architecture with separate CPU-managed data flows and hardware-accelerated parity operations.
By harnessing the existing PCIe® infrastructure of the host system, the SmartRAID 4300 eliminates the single-slot data bottlenecks seen in traditional designs. Data writes occur at the full generational speed of the host’s PCIe connections, while parity-based redundancy (XOR) calculations are efficiently handled by the accelerator card.
In internal benchmarks, this approach has delivered up to a 7× increase in input/output (I/O) performance compared to previous-generation solutions. The architecture supports both PCIe Gen 4 and Gen 5 host CPUs, enabling configurations of up to 32 CPU-attached x4 NVMe devices and as many as 64 logical drives or RAID arrays, ensuring exceptional scalability for modern enterprise workloads.
Enterprise-Grade Security, Efficiency, and Flexibility
The SmartRAID 4300 series is engineered for compatibility with both NVMe® and cloud-capable SSDs, allowing data centre and enterprise operators to tailor storage solutions to a wide range of workload and infrastructure requirements.
Security is built into the architecture, with enterprise-grade protections including a hardware root of trust, secure boot and update processes, attestation capabilities, and support for Self-Encrypting Drives (SEDs) to ensure data confidentiality and compliance.
Power efficiency is optimised through advanced techniques such as automatic idling of processor cores and autonomous power reduction, reducing operational costs without compromising performance. Multiple safeguards maintain end-to-end data integrity, providing the resilience needed for mission-critical applications.
By maintaining the advanced features and hardware offload benefits of previous Adaptec generations, the SmartRAID 4300 series scales seamlessly with modern host platforms, interconnects, and CPU-attached NVMe endpoints, ensuring both performance and reliability for evolving enterprise storage demands.
Visit the website to learn more about the company’s full portfolio of data center solutions.
Deployment, Management, and Availability
The SmartRAID 4300 series is supported by a comprehensive suite of configuration and management tools, ensuring streamlined deployment and ongoing operation within enterprise and data centre environments.
- Adaptec maxView™ HTML5 GUI – A modern, browser-based interface for intuitive configuration and monitoring.
- ARCCONF CLI and plug-ins – Command-line tools and integration options for advanced administration.
- Remote and local management compatibility – Full support for in-band network management accessible via standard desktop and mobile browsers.
- BMC integration – Out-of-band Baseboard Management Controller support, including DMTF standards-based management, Platform-Level Data Model (PLDM) and Redfish® Device Enablement (RDE) via MCTP protocol.
These capabilities allow seamless integration into existing enterprise platforms while providing flexible, standards-compliant management across diverse infrastructure environments.
Adaptec SmartRAID 4300 accelerators are now available for production integration. For pricing and availability, contact a Microchip sales representative or authorised worldwide distributor.
Further product information can be found in the product sell sheet.
