Burlington, Mass.-based Winchester Systems has upgraded its high-performance FlashDisk OpenRAID product to utilize Ultra160 SCSI interfaces to all host and drive interface channels to provide “end-to-end” Ultra160 performance.
FlashDisk OpenRAID models are now available with up to four Ultra160 SCSI host ports that each deliver up to 160 MB per second data throughput. The quad host model permits up to four host servers to be “direct attached” simultaneously. For enterprise environments that plan to convert to SAN or NAS in the near future, other FlashDisk models provide two SCSI ports and two fibre channel ports. This unique configuration enables the FlashDisk OpenRAID disk array to be directly attached via Ultra160 SCSI immediately and then later migrated to “network attach” via fibre channel by simply inserting the fibre channel cable to the fibre channel port. No changes are required within the RAID system, officials said.
FlashDisk OpenRAID is available with 18 GB, 36 GB, 73 GB and 181 GB disk drives. One model uses 12 low-profile 73.4 GB, 10,000-rpm disk drives and stores 880.8 GB. The highest capacity unit uses eight half-height 181.2 GB, 7,200-rpm disk drives and stores 1.45 TB. The FlashDisk 82″ high Data Center Cabinet holds nine rackmount units plus a UPS to store 13 TB in just six square feet of floor space.
FlashDisk OpenRAID models are available in rackmount and pedestal configurations. A FlashDisk OpenRAID Ultra160 unit with eight 7,200-rpm disk drives of 181.4 GB each that stores 1.45 TB is priced at $50,897 for a dual-port model and $53,640 for a quad-port model – both under four cents per MB. For higher speed requirements, using more and faster spindles, the FlashDisk OpenRAID Ultra160 uses twelve 10,000-rpm disk drives of 73.4 GB each to store 880.8 GB and is priced at $41,103 for a dual port model and $43,846 for a quad-port model. Delivery is two to three weeks.