Adaptec’s new controller bids goodbye to Li-ion batteries

June 24, 2009 - by Lisa Sibley, Cleantech Group

New technology out of California-based company features flash memory powered by a supercapacitor instead of a battery, offering a maintenance free design.
Milpitas, Calif.-based Adaptec (Nasdaq:ADPT) launches a new patent-pending product today that it says eliminates the need for lithium-ion batteries in data centers.

The company makes hardware and software for the data storage industry, with some products that can help manage power use. Adaptec says its new Series 5Z RAID family of controllers is the first in the industry to render lithium-ion batteries obsolete.

“It’s the cleanest, greenest platform you can buy with end-to-end cache and data protection,” Scott Cleland, Adaptec’s director of marketing, told the Cleantech Group.

Lithium-ion batteries have traditionally been used in battery back-ups of cache—a block of memory that temporarily stores data—in computer servers. The batteries are in use 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and Cleland said they have to be serviced, maintained and replaced regularly. The battery’s charge can also degrade over time, like a cell phone. If there’s a power failure or unplanned event, the batteries can offer up to 72 hours of back-up protection. But some people don’t turn the cache on, Cleland said, which can result in lower performance.

“Lithium-ion battery technology used in most battery back-up implementations has not advanced measurably for many years, and is far from a truly green solution,” said Jeff Byrne, a senior analyst and consultant with Taneja Group, an independent analyst and consulting group focused on storage and storage-centric server technologies.

Adaptec’s new technology requires zero-maintenance cache protection. The product is intended for deployments related to unattended remote installations, Web hosting, digital surveillance, medical imaging and communications. Adaptec said the new product also performs five times faster than competitive RAID controllers.

Byrne said the zero-maintenance cache protection in Adaptec’s Series 5Z controllers is “a pretty big deal” for IT managers who have had to put up with the monitoring, maintenance and disposal requirements of conventional lithium-ion batteries.

“It’s an even bigger deal for IT managers who have lost cached data at some point,” he said.

Most importantly, Cleland said the new product line replaces the “lingering necessary evil in the space”—the lithium-ion battery. The new RAID controller features flash memory powered by a supercapacitor instead of a battery, offering a maintenance free design, the company said. The supercapacitors are made by Ellisville, Mo.-based Cooper Bussmann. The Series 5Z products also feature Adaptec’s Intelligent Power Management, which the company said reduces storage power and cooling costs by up to 70 percent.

“It’s a perfect storm of decision makers,” Cleland said. “Supercapacitor technology is now cost effective enough to integrate into this application, and the adoption of lithium-ion back-ups has grown significantly."

According to a report from Lux Research released earlier this month, the market for supercapacitors is likely to grow from $208 million in 2008 to $877 million in 2014. Supercapacitors are electrical storage devices that can store a high density of energy in a short time based on increased surface area by using nanomaterials (see Researchers see spike in supercapacitor demand).

In March, University of Maryland professors said they are using nanotechnology to increase the energy density of a new type of electrostatic capacitor as a method for storing energy. Electrostatic capacitors store energy as an electric charge (see Next-gen car solution? Scientists expand uses for electrostatic capacitor).

Adaptec’s new product eliminates environmental issues associated with maintaining, transporting and disposing lithium-ion batteries, Byrne said. Heat dissipation is also less than that of lithium-ion batteries, according to the company.

Switzerland-based ReVolt Technology said its rechargeable zinc-air batteries avoid problems in lithium-ion batteries of thermal runway, in which batteries can become overheated and combust. The company brought in $13.1 million in funding in January (see ReVolt plans for zinc-air battery to trump Li-ion with $13M in funding).

Lithium-ion batteries currently face transport regulations from the International Air Transport Association (IATA) when being moved from country to country because they are hazardous.

“These regulations are costly and a hassle to meet,” Byrne said.

In 2008, the European Union also implemented some tough environmental standards for batteries, including banning some chemicals and changing labeling requirements (see EU readies new battery mandates).

In the Series 5Z products, the cache can be turned on all the time. That allows volatile memory to be transferred into nonvolatile memory in 120 seconds, providing nearly immediate protection, according Adaptec.

“This is like a USB stick on steroids,” Cleland said.

Cleland said customers can expect to save about $600 over four years on the approximately $800 purchase. Byrne said most of the cost savings are expected to come from reduced material and administrative costs.

The warranty and life expectancy of an Adaptec Series 5Z controller is three years, while the warranty and life expectancy of a supercapacitor is seven years.

The $800 price point is more than double the cost of two lithium ion batteries, Cleland said, so there may be some initial “sticker shock” from customers. However, Cleland said Adaptec already has more than 20 customers lined up to purchase the product.

“Adaptec channel partners and ultimate end-users will find this capability attractive, and will likely boost Adaptec’s controller sales in the intermediate term,” said Byrne. He declined to speculate on the revenue impact.

The product, being manufactured in Singapore, is expected to be seeded with customers in 30 days to three months. Cleland wouldn’t disclose how many new controllers Adaptec expects to produce, but said it would be in the thousands. He also wouldn’t indicate revenue projections associated with the new class of product.

Cleland and Byrne both indicated LSI (NYSE:LSI), which is Adaptec’s biggest competitor, would most likely follow with a similar product. Byrne said he wasn’t aware of any specific projects LSI has underway.

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