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Technology Stocks : Ampex Corporation (AEXCA) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: timothy alan morris who wrote (4258)	12/31/1998 6:38:00 PM
From: Hal Campbell	Respond to of 17679

<< An MS spokesman said it should be ready for release in Q2 of 1901. >> LOL..thanks Tim. Well, I'm in for 5,000 more ( though the purchase was probably poorly timed.) I think they have the wherewithal to charm the market at least one more time ..... where did I put those loaded dice? Good luck to all.

To: timothy alan morris who wrote (4258)	12/31/1998 6:41:00 PM
From: flickerful	Respond to of 17679

microsoft.com

To: timothy alan morris who wrote (4258)	1/1/1999 9:55:00 AM
From: flickerful	Respond to of 17679

31 dec 98...computer reseller news on data storage & fibre channel: << -- Demand for data storage is at an all-time high. IT departments use high-speed/high-capacity storage to back up workstations. Data is warehoused for centralized management. Storage-intensive video, digital images and audio are stored on hard drives for kiosks, medical use and editing. The applications require high-density, high-bandwidth mass storage to help with management and reap the fullest cash return from data warehouses. The infrastructure must support efficient storage-system, network, video and audio communications, as well as work over long distances, be fault-tolerant and offer excellent price/performance. Fibre Channel technology meets those requirements. It offers up to 1-Gbit-per-second bandwidth with a road map for 2 and 4 Gbps. Protocol independence allows Fibre Channel to support SCSI, TCP/IP, video and audio. Fibre Channel can be run over copper for low cost or optical fiber for ease of installation or long reach. >> Topology Fibre Channel is used as a high-bandwidth drive interface allowing high-density/high-performance drives to be chained together to form arrays. The interconnected drives form a Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop (FC-AL). An array's loop can be connected with another array's for additional storage. If the loop terminates at a Fibre Channel host-bus adapter in a server, the server can be used to grant users access to the storage in a point-to point topology. Multiple computers, each with an HBA, can be inserted into the FC-AL. The computers all benefit from the high-bandwidth access to one another and to the data store. Software running on each computer makes the arrays appear as though they were local SCSI drives. Fibre Channel also supports switched-fabric topologies for higher-speed access. A switched-fabric topology introduces switches to intelligently route data between Fibre Channel devices. The mingling of multiple computers and storage devices forms a storage area network (SAN). Currently, SANs are used in video editing, medical imaging, 3-D animation and scientific research. The Truth About SANs This is all too good to be true, at least in the short term. For a SAN to work properly, all the hardware and the software used must be designed for seamless interoperability. But manufacturers of Fibre Channel wares have not had an opportunity to test the compatibility of their new products with one another. A reseller is advised to sell a total solution of known-compatible components or check for compatibility before introducing hardware into an established SAN. Even adding a SAN to a network can falter because of an incompatibility. For example, the Compaq Fibre Channel Storage Array in this roundup can only be used with a server-class Compaq computer. For the short term, a good fallback position is to use the point-to-point topology. That eliminates the need for all but one HBA and requires no special software on the workstations. If arrays are daisy- chained, no hub is needed, eliminating that link in the interoperability chain. Even with the server as a potential bottleneck, Fibre Channel arrays dish out data much faster than SCSI solutions. A properly designed Fibre Channel array will provide better data access to clients than any other mass storage array today. >> By: John Yacono Copyright 1999 CMP Media Inc.