UltraTrak TX4 & TX8 Units Desgined for Major SCSI Platforms
San Jose, Calif. – April 27, 2001 – Promise Technology, Inc. today announced the release of UltraTrak100 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.[1]
List price for UltraTrak100 TX8 will be $2495 and UltraTrak100 TX4 will be $1495.
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.
In use, UltraTrak100 TX subsystems can configure multiple Ultra ATA/100 drives in RAID 5, 3, 0+1, 1, and 0 arrays. The subsystems enable fault-tolerant “hot swap” and/or “hot spare” support for continuous operation in case of drive failure within an array. Administrators can run multiple arrays from the same enclosure.
“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.
UltraTrak100 TX subsystems use Promise Technology’s best-selling Ultra ATA/100 controller ASIC with hundreds of thousands sold worldwide by resellers and OEMs since its introduction last year.
“As the pioneer of the ATA RAID concept and the acknowledged industry leader of this product category, Promise is dedicated to assuring that business professionals and MIS administrators have the best storage solution possible,” Sirisena said. “UltraTrak100 TX subsystems deliver the power, protection, and RAID performance of external SCSI subsystems at a fraction of the price”.
UltraTrak100 TX Series units employ audio alarms, LEDs, and an LCD panel to indicate drive and array status – including disk access, disk failure, and disk rebuild. In addition, the LCD panel displays UltraTrak100’s enclosure status – including temperature, fan status, and voltage. UltraTrak100’s management utility offers event logging, disk synchronization, array rebuild, and real-time usage statistics.
Lockable drive chassises (4 for TX4, 8 for TX8) allow drives to slide in and out of the UltraTrak100 TX enclosures for easy drive configuration and support of “hot” swap drive replacement in the event a drive fails. Redundant cooling fans maintain enclosure temperature in case a fan fails. In addition, the TX8 includes redundant, hot-swappable power supplies.
Technical Overview: UltraTrak100? TX Series
The UltraTrak100 TX Series support Ultra ATA/100 hard drive specifications, including CRC error checking. The new subsystems house up to four (TX4) or eight (TX8) independent “master” drive channels (one drive per channel), onboard i960 RISC processor, 16MB cache memory, and onboard bootable array BIOS. An LCD-based setup utility speeds configuration of each array.
Similar to more expensive SCSI RAID subsystems, UltraTrak100 TX subsystems offer intelligent data handling that includes tagged command queuing, elevator seek, and load balancing to maximize hard drive performance and response.
“UltraTrak100 TX subsystems provide the advanced RAID level protection and critical low CPU-usage ratios necessary for any MIS professional requiring midrange server storage and RAID 5 level fault tolerance at a fraction of the cost of SCSI systems," Sirisena said.UltraTrak100 TX Series Highlights
· Only RAID manufacturer to create external RAID subsystems that use Ultra ATA/100 drives with advanced selection of RAID levels for up to eight drives: RAID 0 (striping), RAID 1 (mirroring), RAID 0+1 (mirroring+striping), RAID 3 (striping with dedicated parity data drive), RAID 5 (data striping with parity striping)
· Offers the power, protection, and RAID performance of external SCSI subsystems at a fraction of the price.
· Supports Ultra ATA/100 specification, including advanced CRC error-checking at higher drive speeds.
· Works with any operating system that has embedded or add-in SCSI controller support
· Supports use of "hot" spare drive for immediate drive rebuilding in event of drive failure (RAID 1, 0+1, 3 and 5).
· Only Ultra ATA/100 external RAID subsystems to support “hot swap” operation
· Simplified text-based interface displays on LCD screen for easy control by electronic pushbuttons
About Promise
Promise Technology, Inc., headquartered in San Jose, is a worldwide leader in Ultra ATA RAID storage controllers and subsystems. The company has an impressive track record of design innovations and product introductions since its founding in 1988. Promise developed the first IDE caching controller (DC2030), the first Ultra ATA controller card (Ultra33), and the first controller to offer IDE RAID for desktop PCs (FastTrak). For more information, visit Promise Technology’s web site at www.promise.com.
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[1]While the UltraTrak TX4 & TX8 should appear as standard SCSI devices to any operating system, Promise has only verified functionality in Windows, Linux and Netware environments.