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Storage news - 2006, April week 1 |
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| Cirrus Offers
NAS on a Chip Embedded Systems Conference, San Jose, Calif. - April 6, 2006 - Cirrus Logic Inc. today announced the availability of a new reference design for the fast-growing consumer NAS market. This gives OEMs a comprehensive solution that includes not only a cost-effective and powerful hardware implementation but also a full set of software features. The EP9312 ARM9-based system-on-a-chip includes an integrated Ethernet port, dual hard-drive controller interface for future upgradeability, and three USB connections. This will enable consumer network storage devices at new lower price points. "Consumer multimedia content is growing, and as a result personal NAS devices are moving into the home," stated John Rydning, IDC's research manager for hard disk drives. "The overall market for personal storage devices is expected to grow from approximately 11 million units in 2005 to over 70 million by 2009, with a growing percentage of these units delivered as personal NAS solutions." ...Cirrus Logic profile M-Systems Terminates Agreements with Samsung KFAR SABA, Israel - April 6, 2006 - M-Systems today announced that it has just terminated its December 2003 agreement with Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. This is said to be due to Samsung's failure to abide by its supply commitments under the terms of the agreement. Under the terms of the terminated agreement M-Systems had granted a license to its patents to Samsung in return for license fees and secured capacity of NAND flash memory at favorable terms. As a result of the termination of the agreement, all licenses granted to Samsung, as well as Samsung's obligation to provide secured capacity and pay license fees to msystems, have expired. M-Systems firmly believes in its ability to secure the flash supply needed to facilitate its continued growth. ...M-Systems profile, ...Samsung profile Editor's comments:- M-Systems was the world's fastest growing storage company in 2004, and remained in our top 10 list in 2005. They and SiliconSystems separately announced flash supply agreements with Samsung to secure supplies of the raw materials used within their solid state disks. That was against the background of an SSD market which is estimated to be growing above 100% per annum over the next few years. A complicating factor is that Samsung itself started shipping its own range of low end SSD products last month, which may compete with some products offered by the companies with which it had supply agreements. I don't know if Samsung's product relies on technology licensed from M-Systems, and whether that will now become a new issue. Samsung declined to comment on this story. GizMac Launches Low Noise 4U Rackmount Torrance, CA - April 6, 2006 - GizMac Accessories LLC will be releasing a 4U version of their XRackPro noise reduction rackmount cabinet next month (price $499). "For Customers that require a small amount of rackmount equipment to be used around a quiet environment, the 4U XRackPro rackmount cabinet is the answer," says Ken Vitto, Director of Marketing for GizMac Accessories, "Noise will be reduced up to 75% by using the XRackPro rackmount cabinet, allowing rackmount computer servers, RAID storage systems, audio / video gear and other equipment to be placed and operated in areas where noise needs to be at a minimum." ...GizMac profile, Storage Boxes Western Digital Buys Wafer Fab LAKE FOREST, Calif. - April 5, 2006 - Western Digital Corp. today announced that it has completed the purchase of the Fremont, Calif., facility in which it has been fabricating semiconductor wafers for the production of hard drive recording heads since 2003. The purchase price was not disclosed. Approximately 1,000 WD employees work at the facility, which contains about 189,000 square feet of clean room, laboratory and office space. ...Western Digital profile, storage chips, acquisitions, hard disk drives Arkeia Announces Unicode Backup Support SNW, San Diego, CA - April 5, 2006 - Arkeia Software announced today - Arkeia Network Backup Version 5.5, with full support for Unicode/UTF-8 characters in the backup index. With this announcement, multinational companies with operations in Asia or the Middle East can now leverage Arkeia products across their entire organization. Unicode character support is necessary for many Asian-based applications produced in languages such as Korean, Chinese, and Japanese. ...Arkeia profile, Backup Software, Storage VARs in Japan Gartner Says SiliconSystems is Cool ALISO VIEJO, Calif. - April 5, 2006 - SiliconSystems, Inc. today announced that it has been included in Gartner's recently published list of Cool Vendors in Semiconductors, 2006. SiliconSystems' patented SiliconDrive overcomes problems associated with hard drives and flash cards that were originally designed for the consumer electronics and personal computer markets. SiliconDrive technology is engineered to exceed the high performance, high reliability and multi-year lifecycle requirements of the Enterprise System OEM market. "SiliconSystems is honored to be selected as one of Gartner's 'cool vendors' and listed alongside other emerging companies who are helping shape the future of the high tech industry," said Michael Hajeck, CEO at SiliconSystems. ...SiliconSystems profile, ...Gartner profile, storage chips Intel OEMs EMC's 2U 6T iSCSI Box SNW, San Diego, CA - April 4, 2006 - EMC Corp and Intel Corp today announced a multi-year storage OEM agreement. As part of this Intel will offer a networked storage system based on the EMC CLARiiON AX150, introduced yesterday, to Intel's 160,000 resellers and distributors worldwide. The Intel SSR212PP based on this technology is expected to be available in May. Featuring up to 12 SATA disk drives in a 2U rack mountable enclosure, the Intel SSR212PP networked storage system can support a maximum capacity of 6T in a single array. Offered in single- or dual-controller configurations, this easy-to-install storage system provides SMBs with advanced features and the security of redundant power and cooling functionality. It is available for iSCSI or Fibre Channel for flexible direct attached storage or SAN connectivity. ...EMC profile, ...Intel profile Avamar OEMs WysDM's Data Protection SNW, San Diego, CA - April 4, 2006 - Avamar Technologies, Inc. and WysDM Software, Inc. announced today that they have entered into an OEM agreement. Under the terms of the agreement, Avamar will integrate its disk-based data protection platform with WysDM's DPM software and create an add-on module called Avamar Advanced Reporter. Avamar Advanced Reporter will help IT professionals better understand and manage their heterogeneous data protection environments. ...Avamar Technologies profile Spectra Logic Launches SabreDisk D500 SNW, San Diego, CA - April 4, 2006 - Spectra Logic today announced a new member of its Sabre family of secondary disk products, the Spectra SabreDisk D500. The easy-to-implement, disk-based backup appliance is built on Microsoft System Center Data Protection Manager 2006 software. The 3U SabreDisk D500 scales from 2T to 8T of capacity, offers a complete data protection solution and delivers increased file backup frequency to enable user-initiated point-in-time file recovery. The new product will ship in June. Pricing begins at $17,995. ...Spectra Logic profile Disk Sanitizers Joins Top 3 Storage Searches Editor:- April 4, 2006 - STORAGEsearch.com reports on readers' changing interests in March. In March 2006, readership grew 63% and pageviews grew 50% compared to the year ago period. The top 3 subjects viewed by readers (out of 70 storage categories on our home page) were:-
Hitachi Celebrates 50 Years of Hard Disks SAN JOSE, Calif. - April 4, 2006 - Hitachi today published some historic reminiscences and market data to celebrate 50 years of the hard disk drive market. Hitachi holds the privilege of preserving the legacy and upholding the innovation heritage of the hard drive, having acquired the IBM hard drive business in 2003. IBM invented the hard drive in San Jose, California and brought it to market in 1956 as the RAMAC (Random Access Method of Accounting and Control).
Today Hitachi also announced two new 3.5" hard drives. The Deskstar T7K500 and Deskstar 7K160 feature 7,200 RPM spin speeds and 3Gb/s SATA interfaces for high-performance PCs, gaming systems and low duty cycle servers. The new drives use 160GB+ per platter technology to deliver up to 500GB of storage capacity in a one-, two- and three-disk design. ...Hitachi profile, storage history Olixir Ships High Capacity Rugged Hard Drives MILPITAS, Calif. - April 4, 2006 - Olixir Technologies today announced the expansion of its Mobile DataVault family of compact ruggedized external hard drives. The new ultra-rugged 160GB Mobile DataVault 2LX (list price $779) exceeds government MIL-STD-810F transit drop test requirements making it one of the industry's most durable and transportable storage solutions available. For less harsh applications Olixir's Mobile DataVault 3DX rugged drives (but still 1,200G shock protected) are available in 160GB, 250GB, 400GB, and 500GB capacities at list prices of $329, $399, $629, and $759 respectively, with USB 2.0 cable. Other available connectivity options include Firewire cable, SATA cable, internal 5.25" docking bay, or usage in Olixir's Mobile DataVault FastRestore SE and FastRestore Enterprise systems. Spinning internally at 7,200 RPM it includes 8MB of cache, allowing it to transfer a gigabyte of data in less than 50 seconds. Olixir's Mobile DataVault drives are handheld (about the size of a VHS tape) and can be used as removable data cartridges when used in conjuction with Olixir's 5.25" docking bay or desktop Plug-and-Play chassis. For more extensive SMB and enterprise backup and disaster recovery applications, the Mobile DataVault drives can also be used with the Mobile DataVault FastRestore Enterprise System, a RAID 5 solution capable of replacing outdated tape backup drives and libraries. "We believe that the extraordinary level of versatility and durability that our Mobile DataVault family of ruggedized, transportable storage solutions delivers to the market is truly creating a paradigm shift that is driving a marked shift from antiquated, slow tape-based solutions to high-performance disk-based solutions," explained Olixir's President, Darshan Shah. ...Olixir profile, Disk to disk backup Index Engines Version 2 Searches Tape SNW, SAN DIEGO, CA - April 4, 2006 - Index Engines today launched Version 2.0 of their enterprise indexing platform. Version 2.0 extends unstructured data indexing to include secondary storage and boosts processing speeds to 2Gbps wire speeds. This new release effectively indexes information throughout its lifecycle as it is backed up, replicated, snapshoted, archived, or vaulted, for more comprehensive search, classification and management of data enterprise wide. It is available immediately for early access clients and generally available on April 28, 2006. Previous versions of the Index Engines solution supported indexing of primary storage data. With Version 2.0, files residing in secondary storage, even backup tapes, are fully indexed allowing comprehensive discovery of this data across the enterprise. In order to deliver discovery capabilities enterprise wide, Index Engines Version 2.0 provides scalability on the order of billions of files, historical indexing of data throughout its lifecycle, integration with all major storage protocols, and wire speed indexing so that data is processed in a timely manner. The company claims that no other solution on the market can match the indexing capabilities contained in this new version. ...Index Engines profile Microsoft Boots iSCSI into Play SNW, SAN DIEGO, CA - April 4, 2006 - Today Microsoft Corp. announced the availability of Windows Storage Server 2003 R2 through OEMs. In addition, Microsoft announced the availability of software-enabled SAN boot of Microsoft Windows Server 2003 using iSCSI technology that was co-developed with IBM. The company also highlighted new partner solutions within the Simple SAN for Windows Server Program. "Our commitment to Universal Distributed Storage means reducing storage costs and providing customers with high-end functionality on industry-standard hardware," said Gabriel Broner, general manager, Storage Division at Microsoft. "Continued work with partners on the delivery of products such as Windows Storage Server 2003 R2 and the extended support for iSCSI demonstrates delivery on this commitment for our customers." ...Microsoft profile Cornice and Seagate Agree Patent Truce LONGMONT, CO - April 3, 2006 - Cornice and Seagate Technology today announced that for due consideration, both companies have dismissed the Delaware litigation between them and agreed not to sue each other for patent infringement through the end of 2007. ...Cornice profile, ...Seagate profile Editor's comments:- I commented January 3, 2006 that Cornice's patent cross licensing with Hitachi would shield it from lawsuits. Its later deal January 13, 2006 with Fujitsu gave it double immunity. The real nemesis for the ancien regime of hard disk makers in the mobile consumer market is flash. Exabyte Offers Online Tape Capacity Upgrade BOULDER, CO - April 3, 2006 - Exabyte Corp. today announced the world's first tape backup drives to offer expandable Capacity On-Demand. Unlike tape devices of the past, Exabyte's VXA-172 products are engineered to grow as business data grows. For as little as $699 (estimated U.S. street price), customers can purchase a reliable, plug-and-play 172G system today that can be affordably upgraded later to 320G via a simple electronic update. For greater flexibility, tape cartridges for the VXA-172 are available in two sizes: the X6 at 80G ($15) and the X10 at 172G ($29). The standalone VXA-172 Packet Drive provides a small business with a simple tape device that accepts one tape cartridge at a time. For organizations wanting unattended backup, the VXA-172 Packet Loader has 10 cartridge slots and a robotic mechanism for automatic, unattended operation. The VXA-172 Packet Loader offers up to 1.7T of capacity today and up to 3.2T Capacity On-Demand tomorrow and a standard barcode reader to manage cartridges. The VXA-172 Packet Drive is available for $699 and the VXA-172 Packet Loader is available for $1,699. The capacity-on-demand electronic upgrades will be available for around $349 for a drive upgrade and $599 for the PacketLoader upgrade. ...Exabyte profile Coraid Gives ATA-over-Ethernet a Jumbo Boost SAN CLEMENTE, Calif. - April 3, 2006 - Coraid today announced that they are boosting the performance of the ATA-over-Ethernet networked storage protocol by adding support for Jumbo Frames. Coraid, the originator of the AoE storage protocol, is contributing source code to the open source community for a new Linux AoE driver with Jumbo Frame support and has published version 9 of the AoE specification on its website. The AoE driver is native in standard distributions that use the 2.6.11 and higher Linux kernel. Open source drivers for other kernels are also available from Coraid. Coraid's own EtherDrive Storage utilizes the AoE storage protocol to deliver a simple, scalable, affordable alternative to iSCSI or Fibre Channel storage strategies. Coraid is demonstrating the new functionality of AoE in their EtherDrive products this week at LinuxWorld Boston. "Customers continue to want higher performing, more cost effective solutions to store their critical data," said Jim Kemp, CEO of Coraid. "By adding Jumbo Frames support to AoE, Linux users can now take advantage very high speed Ethernet by using a storage protocol that requires little processing resources providing high storage IOPS without hardware accelerators. This allows Linux users to take advantage of high network speeds like 10Gbps Ethernet at a lower cost with all the benefits of open source." ...Coraid profile Topio Launches RoadRunner Santa Clara, CA - April 3, 2006 - Topio, Inc. today announced the availability of its innovative new disaster recovery offering, code-named RoadRunner. RoadRunner is a turnkey "Disaster Recovery Solution in a Box" and is available through Topio's Premier VAR partners. With RoadRunner, VARS are now able to network-attach a data-protection and recovery solution, including high-performance replication, best-in-class storage and recovery servers from any vendor to a customer's existing infrastructure. ...Topio profile, Squeak! - Animal Brands in the Storage Market EMC Archive Services for Email Hopkinton, Mass - April 3, 2006 - EMC Corp today unveiled EMC Documentum Archive Services for Email. The new software captures and archives all incoming and outgoing email messages to ensure compliance with regulations and internal email policies. Enhanced compliance capabilities enable customers to validate email compliance to regulators and the courts. In the event of litigation, investigators can search the archive and deliver high volumes of messages quickly, accurately and with assurance that the chain of custody is intact. ...EMC profile, SAN software, article:- Privacy and Security Regulations, and How they Impact Storage Systems Infortrend Provides Bundled On-Site Service SAN DIEGO, Calif. - April 3, 2006 - Infortrend today named KODAK Service to provide warranty service for the company's line of EonStor RAID storage subsystems throughout the United States and Canada. Starting today, EonStor brand systems come with a one-year service package that includes 24/7 telephone support and next-business-day on-site parts replacement. In addition to the bundled one-year service package, EonStor customers will soon be able to purchase uplifts to add four-hour on-site response, and full coverage for three years including hard disk drive support. Infortrend also announced today the EonStor A04U-G2421 SCSI-to-SATA subsystem, the company's first 1U, four-bay RAID array. ...Infortrend profile, ...Kodak profile, Storage Services ONStor Names New VP Engineering SNW, SAN DIEGO, Calif. - April 3, 2006 - ONStor today announced the appointment of Jerry Lopatin to senior vp of engineering and operations. Lopatin brings more than 25 years of industry experience to ONStor, where he will oversee all hardware and software engineering as well as manufacturing operations. Prior to joining ONStor, Lopatin served as senior vice president of engineering at Network Appliance where he worked since 2000 in several executive positions. Previously, Lopatin worked as director of engineering and quality for the Professional Products Division of Iomega. Over his career, which began at IBM, Lopatin has also served as an engineering director at both Samsung Electronics and Seagate. Lopatin holds bachelor's degrees from Stanford University in chemistry and philosophy. He currently holds two patents for magnetic recording and test technologies, and has three patents pending. ...ONStor profile, Storage People M-Systems Announces Industrial CompactFlash SUNNYVALE, Calif. - April 3, 2006 - Msystems today announced that it is introducing industrial grade CompactFlash products ranging from 32MB to 8G capacity. The new mModule CF 5000 family features:- 20MB/sec data transfer rate, up to 5 million write/erase cycles per block, built in sanitizing and quick erase for superior security. It can withstand severe weather conditions, shock, high altitude and rigorous vibrations. mModule CF 5000 complies fully with MIL-STD-810F, meeting the strictest reliability requirements for mission-critical applications. ...M-Systems profile Sun Enhances Storage Management Software SNW, SAN DIEGO, Calif. - April 3, 2006 - Sun Microsystems, Inc. today announced new versions of its StorageTek brand storage software family. New features include:- enhanced NAS support, orphan storage reporting and additional platform support, in particular for Sun's Solaris 10, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, QLogic switches, and IBM and ADIC tape libraries. SMI-S client support for disk arrays and tape libraries has been added to the previously certified support for SMI-S-compliant fabric and host devices. ...Sun Microsystems profile, Storage Software | ||||||||||||
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