I believe these are Seagate Drives.
Kevin
Tuesday December 2, 9:14 am Eastern Time
Company Press Release
Storage Dimensions Rolls Out New Generation Disk Drives for
SuperFlex RAID Storage Systems
10,000 RPM UltraSCSI Drives Now Shipping in 4.3 and 9.1 GB Capacities
18.2 GB Drives to Ship in the First Quarter of 1998
Storage Dimensions (NASDAQ:STDM - news), the leading independent vendor of high-availability RAID
storage systems for the PC-LAN market, today announced shipment of 10,000 RPM UltraSCSI disk drives in
the Company's SuperFlex(TM) 3000 DGR(TM) Ultra RAID storage systems.
Storage Dimensions is among the first storage system vendors to ship the high performance 3.5'' drives in 9.1
GB and 4.3 GB capacities. The Company also announced plans to ship 18.2 GB 7200 disk drives in early
1998.
''Storage Dimensions remains on the leading edge of high-performance RAID storage by incorporating the
industry's fastest disk drives into SuperFlex 3000 DGR Ultra, our highest performing storage system,'' said Ted
Chen, vice president of marketing for Storage Dimensions. ''We've already shown tremendous performance in
SuperFlex 3000 DGR Ultra by combining UltraSCSI throughput with scalable cache to deliver a system that is
more than twice as fast as external systems from Compaq and Hewlett Packard. The new 10,000 RPM drives
will provide significant further enhancements, with throughput that is up to 37% faster than that of 7200 RPM
drives.''
10,000 RPM Speed Puts Performance Back Into High-Capacity Drives
The arrival of 10,000 RPM disk drives marks the next step in the continuing evolution of disk drive technology.
As disk drive capacity has increased well beyond early industry projections, drive speed has increased from
3600 RPM to 5400 RPM to 7200 RPM and now to 10,000 RPM to enable the drives to handle the increasing
load efficiently.
The new generation 10,000 RPM disk drives deliver typical performance gains of 16-37% over 7200 RPM
drives and maintain a higher sustained data transfer rate. The resulting performance improvements benefit
environments that require rapid processing of random transactions such as large file servers, email applications,
web servers, and OLTP databases, as well as environments that process large sequential transfers such as
decision support and multimedia applications.
SuperFlex Systems Deliver the Power and Cooling Required for 10,000 RPM Drives
The 9.1 GB 10,000 RPM disk drives run hotter and require over 50% more power than their 7200 RPM
counterparts. While this has created issues for some storage vendors whose enclosures cannot accommodate
the new drives, it is not a problem for Storage Dimensions' SuperFlex systems which are designed to handle the
increased requirements.
The robust SuperFlex systems deliver the additional power and cooling required for 9.1 GB 10,000 RPM
drives, enabling customers to utilize their existing SuperFlex enclosures and preserve their storage investment.
Some previous-generation SuperFlex enclosures will require a power supply upgrade, which Storage
Dimensions will provide at no cost.
SuperFlex 3000 DGR Ultra Outperforms Compaq and HP External Storage Systems
SuperFlex 3000 DGR Ultra delivers superior performance with industry leading I/O caching and UltraSCSI
technology that Compaq and HP do not offer in their external storage systems. Taking advantage of 128 MB of
available cache, SuperFlex 3000 DGR Ultra demonstrates a 185% performance advantage over Compaq
(NYSE:CPQ - news), which tops out at 16 MB of cache, and a 177% performance advantage over Hewlett
Packard (NYSE:HWP - news), which offers only 4 MB of cache. The system's UltraSCSI disk drives and
controller also enhance performance by doubling the peak data transfer rate over the SCSI channel from the
standard Fast/Wide SCSI-2 performance of 20 MB/second to 40 MB/second.
-0-
Storage System Cache (a)I/Os Per External 10,000 RPM
Second UltraSCSI Drives
-----------------------------------------------------------------
SuperFlex 3000 16 to 128 (a)532 to 1287 Yes 4.3 and 9.1 GB
DGR Ultra MB
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Compaq Smart 16 MB (b)455 No 4.3 and 9.1 GB
2DH
-----------------------------------------------------------------
HP NetRAID 4 MB (b)475 No 4.3 GB only
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(a) Based on benchmarks conducted by Storage Dimensions using 10,000 RPM drives
(b) Based on benchmarks conducted by Storage Dimensions using 7200 RPM drives and assuming a 26%
average performance improvement for 10,000 RPM drives
Benchmark Specifications
-- Mixed I/O Environment: 70% Reads, 30% Writes with 50% random, 50%
sequential transactions
-- 16K Stripe Size, 8K Blocks
-- Heavy load (50 Processes)
-- Benchmarks conducted under NT-IOGEN
-0-
SMART-Capable 10,000 RPM Drives Allow for Predictive Failure Monitoring
The new 10,000 RPM disk drives incorporate Self-Monitoring Analysis and Reporting Technology (SMART),
a new industry standard that disk drive vendors are implementing to allow for predicting drive failures. SMART
technology monitors various parameters which can be used to predict drive mechanism failures. Storage
Dimensions plans to introduce storage monitoring software in the first quarter of 1998, that will receive
SMART notification and alert system administrators of potential disk drive problems. A system administrator
will then be able to replace a degraded drive before a failure occurs.
SuperFlex Systems To Incorporate 18.2 GB Drives In Early 1998
Storage Dimensions plans to begin shipping 18.2 GB 7200 RPM disk drives in SuperFlex storage systems at
the beginning of 1998. The new high-capacity drives will lower the cost per megabyte in a SuperFlex system to
approximately $.25 and will provide 109 GB of on-line RAID 5 storage in a single seven-drive SuperFlex
system and 218 GB in a 14-drive SuperFlex 5200 system. Multiple SuperFlex configurations will now scale to
capacities up to four terabytes by supporting one TB of RAID 5 capacity on each server SCSI channel.
''Storage Dimensions will be one of the earliest storage system manufacturers to ship 18.2 GB disk drives,''
said Jim Canter, who was recently promoted to vice president of engineering for Storage Dimensions. ''The
drives will benefit high-end PC-LAN market segments by providing the capacity customers require at a new
low price point. With twice the capacity, our systems will be ideally suited for server consolidation and
clustering environments, as well as for emerging applications that require very high capacity and performance
such as imaging, multimedia, and video.''
Availability, Pricing, and Support
SuperFlex 3000 DGR Ultra is now shipping with 4.3 and 9.1 GB 10,000 RPM UltraSCSI disk drives. A
SuperFlex 3000 DGR Ultra system with three 4.3 GB 10,000 RPM disk drives is priced from $9,700. A
complete system configured with seven 9.1 GB 10,000 RPM drives is priced at $20,900. Storage Dimensions
plans to extend shipment of 10,000 RPM disk drives to SuperFlex models 4000, 4500, 5000, and 5200 in the
next three months.
The 18.2 GB disk drives are expected to be available for all SuperFlex models early in 1998. Pricing has not
yet been released.
Storage Dimensions customers will be able to economically upgrade to 10,000 RPM or 18.2 GB disk drives
by taking advantage of Storage Dimensions FlexCredit(SM) trade-in program. Under the generous terms of
FlexCredit, customers can trade in their existing drives for a 50% credit towards the purchase of the new
drives.
Founded in 1985, Storage Dimensions designs, manufactures, markets, and supports a broad family of disk
and tape storage systems designed to satisfy the high-performance, fault-tolerance, and high-availability
requirements of the PC-LAN market. The Company, which focuses on reducing the life-cycle cost of
ownership of network storage, also develops and supports selected products for the Unix market. Storage
Dimensions' products are sold through its own field sales force in combination with multi-tiered distribution
channels. For more information, contact Storage Dimensions at 1656 McCarthy Boulevard, Milpitas, Calif.
95035, 408/954-0710, or visit storagedimensions.com . |
