Promise Technology, Inc. this week announced the release of UltraTrak100(TM) TX4 and TX8, external SCSI-to-ATA RAID 3, 5 storage subsystems designed for Ultra ATA/100 drives. The UltraTrak100 TX Series is operating system and platform independent, working with any platform that has embedded or add-in SCSI controller support.
According to Promise, the UltraTrak100 TX4 (four-drive enclosure) and TX8 (eight-drive enclosure) work with any standard Ultra2 SCSI LVD controller (not included). When populated with up to eight Ultra ATA/100, (or Ultra ATA/66) drives, UltraTrak100 TX Series array(s) appear as a standard SCSI drive(s). Users configure and manage UltraTrak100 TX Series subsystems using a built-in LCD display screen and electronic push buttons.
“Our design makes UltraTrak100 TX subsystems virtually independent of the actual operating system platform it is being used on,” said Sam Sirisena, Promise vice president of sales and marketing. “Network users can achieve price differences greater than 3-to-1 when compared with SCSI RAID enclosure/drive combinations.”
UltraTrak100 TX subsystems each include an internal RAID controller assembly that mounts inside the enclosure. The controller includes an Intel I960 RISC microprocessor for dedicated management of disk I/Os and to calculate parity for RAID 3 & 5 arrays. In addition, the controller houses 16MB cache memory.
The list price for UltraTrak100 TX8 is set to be $2495, which the UltraTrak100 TX4 will be. $1495.
