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6-Channel SuperTrak100™, 4-Channel SuperTrak66™ Offer Flexible, Low-Cost RAID 5 Solutions for Midrange Networks & Professional Workstations
San Jose, Calif. - September 6, 2000 - Promise Technology, Inc. today announced release of the first Ultra ATA RAID 5 & 3 controller product line -- including a six-channel RAID card supporting up to six Ultra ATA/100 drives running at up to 100MB/sec and a four-channel RAID card for Ultra ATA/66 drives.
"Our ATA RAID 5 & 3 controllers offer price differences greater than 3-to-1 when compared with even inexpensive Ultra2 LVD SCSI RAID configurations," said Sam Sirisena, Promise vice president of sales and marketing. "We have become the first and only manufacturer to provide a complete product line for network professionals seeking reliable, economically-sensible ATA RAID 0, 1, 0/1, 3 or 5 storage solutions with complete RAID features such as hot-swap and hot spare."
"As the pioneer of the ATA RAID concept and the acknowledged industry leader of this product category, we are dedicated to assuring that consumers continue to have a complete and comprehensive selection of ATA RAID controllers and subsystems that offer SCSI RAID functions at one third of SCSI pricing."
The company's SuperTrak100? (for Ultra ATA/100 drives) and SuperTrak66? (for Ultra ATA/66 drives) RAID cards with onboard i960RD processors and cache memory are designed for small to midrange-level networks with easy initial setup and across-network array management tools dedicated to ATA RAID. Each SuperTrak product offers complete fault tolerance options with choice of RAID 1, 0+1, 3, or 5 levels, "hot" swap, and "hot" spare support.
The cards work seamlessly with Promise Technology's optional SuperSwapO removable drive housing and chassis for "hot" swap operation and enclosure management. LEDs indicate drive and array status - including disk access, disk failure, and disk rebuild. In addition, the cards' advanced array management GUI keeps track of each SuperSwap enclosure by monitoring temperature, fan status, and voltage regulation.
SuperTrak100 uses the world's leading Ultra ATA/100 controller ASIC with more than 250,000 units sold from June to mid-August. SuperTrak66 uses the world's leading Ultra ATA/66 controller ASIC used in more than 2 million PCs sold since its 1999 introduction.
Technical Overview: SuperTrak100?
The new card houses six independent "master" drive channels (one drive per channel), onboard i960RD RISC processor, a single SIMM slot for up to 128MB onboard cache memory (16MB included), and onboard bootable array BIOS. The SuperBuild? setup utility speeds configuration of each array. A sophisticated GUI permits any SuperTrak array to be monitored via password-secured LAN or remote Internet connection. The onboard i960RD RISC processor, coupled with bus mastering, manages I/O and memory cache processing to reduce CPU overhead.
"The entire SuperTrak Series family provides the advanced RAID level protection and critical low CPU-usage ratios necessary for any MIS professional building small to midrange server storage who requires on-the-fly protection against drive failure and remote monitoring at a fraction of the cost of SCSI systems," Sirisena said.
"With SuperTrak100, network professionals or resellers can link up to six Ultra ATA/100 drives (depending on model) together to easily achieve more than 400GB of storage capacity while constantly protecting data against a drive failure and dramatically boosting the transfer performance versus single drive storage."
SuperTrak "Hot Swap" Benefits
SuperTrak100 and SuperTrak66 ATA RAID support "hot swapping" of failed drives when used with Promise Technology's SuperSwap? "hot swap" enclosure, providing for continuous operation without powering down a system in the event of a failed drive. SuperSwap employs patent-pending ATA Sideband TechnologyTM that identifies whether a drive is being connected or removed from the PC during operation. This allows SuperSwap to fully protect drives and PC electronics when drives are removed and/or replaced in a running system.
In addition, the SuperTrak controllers communiate with SuperSwap's LED displays to indicate drive status (failed, rebuilding, disk activity) and power/activity status. Finally, the chassis communicates with each SuperTrak card to allow monitoring of the enclosure's temperature, fan, and voltage regulation.
SuperTrak100 Highlights
- Only RAID manufacturer to offer support of Ultra ATA/100 drives with advanced selection of RAID levels for up to six 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 RAID 5 storage at less than one-third of the cost of SCSI RAID.
- Supports Ultra ATA/100 specifications including advanced CRC error-checking at higher drive speeds.
- Only Ultra ATA/100 controller to provide real-time fault-tolerance (RAID Level 1, 3, 5) using up to six drives to protect data whenever the user saves.
- Supports use of "hot" spare drive for immediate drive rebuilding in event of drive failure (RAID 1, 0+1, 3 and 5).
- Only ATA RAID product line to support "hot swap" operation using optional SuperSwapO drive enclosures
- Co-exists with existing motherboard IDE controller allowing user to separate system drive from data drives or to populate motherboard IDE ports with more IDE devices.
- Graphical user interface (Win 95/98/NT/2000) visually alerts user in case of drive failure and identifies failed drive. Allows user to continue to save and retrieve data from remaining working drive(s)
- Designed for use with Windows NT 3.5x & 4.0, 2000
SuperTrak100 and SuperTrak66 follow Promise's successful introduction earlier this year of the FastTrak100?, the first Ultra ATA/100 RAID 0 and RAID 1 card for desktop PCs or entry-level servers that can double the performance of new Ultra ATA/100 hard disk drives.
"The addition of SuperTrak Series products allows users to select from a wide range of RAID solutions, depending on the needs of their system," said Promise Technology's Sirisena.
Promise SuperTrak100 will be available on October 1st and SuperTrak66 begin volume shipments effective immediately. Suggested list price for SuperTrak100 is $499 and for SuperTrak66 is $399.
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, the first Ultra ATA controller card, 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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