ASACA DVD RAID Raises Storage Flexibility to New Heights; Combines 400% Increase in Write Speed with Reliability of DVD-RAM, Economy of Tape.Business Editors/High-Tech Writers NAB2000 GOLDEN, Colo.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 6, 2000 With the announcement of its DVD DVD: see digital versatile disc. DVD in full digital video disc or digital versatile disc Type of optical disc. The DVD represents the second generation of compact-disc (CD) technology. RAID option for the ASACA TeraCart(R) Digital Virtual Library (DVL DVL Doppler Velocity Log DVL Digital Video Link DVL Defense Virtual Library DVL Driver and Vehicle Licencing DVL Direct Voice Link DVL Digital Video Log DVL Digital Video Library DVL Digital Video Labs DVL Digital Virtual Library ) series at NAB and AIIM (Association for Information and Image Management International, Silver Spring, MD, www.aiim.org) A membership organization founded in 1943 devoted to creating industry standards and disseminating information about the document management industry. next week, NET Source, Inc., ASACA's master distributor, provides a level of storage flexibility that is unparalleled in the industry. The fully integrated system allows network managers to configure See configuration. (software) configure - A program by Richard Stallman to discover properties of the current platform and to set up make to compile and install gcc. Cygnus configure was a similar system developed by K. from two to five rewriteable DVD-RAM A rewritable DVD disc endorsed by the DVD Forum. Using phase change technology, DVD-RAMs are like removable hard disks, and the media can be rewritten 100,000 times compared to 1,000 times for DVD-RW and DVD+RW. The first DVD-RAM drives with a capacity of 2.6GB (single sided) or 5. drives in either a mirror or striping Interleaving or multiplexing data to increase speed. See disk striping. striping - data striping mode for increased throughput and transfer rates that are up to 400 percent faster. Designed to simplify management and access, the RAID controller A disk controller card that supports one or more RAID configurations. Originally only for SCSI drives, RAID controllers have become very popular for PATA and SATA drives. See RAID. and associated software make the DVD drives DVD drives come in a variety of speeds and options. The original drive (1x) transferred data at 1.35MB per second. By doubling the spindle speed (RPMs) for 2x drives, the transfer rate increased to 2.7MB/sec and has been increasing ever since. appear as a single SCSI SCSI in full Small Computer System Interface Once common standard for connecting peripheral devices (disks, modems, printers, etc.) to small and medium-sized computers. SCSI has given way to faster standards, such as Firewire and USB. device. The DVD RAID option is available for ASACA libraries configured con·fig·ure tr.v. con·fig·ured, con·fig·ur·ing, con·fig·ures To design, arrange, set up, or shape with a view to specific applications or uses: with 2 to 192 DVD-RAM drives and up to 11,600 double-sided 5.2GB DVD-RAM discs which provide capacities ranging from 1.3TB to 60.3TB. Widely recognized for its ultra-reliability, DVD-RAM media provides more than 100,000 write/rewrite cycles and a data life of more than 30 years, making the $.008/MB storage cost one of the lowest in the industry. These features combine with the DVD RAID option to meet the requirements of organizations that place a high priority on fault-tolerance, high data throughput, extensibility and economy. Typical applications range from high data rate video storage, managing large video files or using a single DVD storage device for both near-line storage and backup. DVD-RAM technology also provides media interchangeability in·ter·change·a·ble adj. That can be interchanged: interchangeable items of clothing; interchangeable automotive parts. in -- a single library can be used to read both CD and DVD media. While this is true of other DVD standards-compliant storage libraries, only the ASACA DVLs are capable of acting as four separate libraries within a single cabinet. Using this same capability and its new DVD RAID controller, NET Source provides its customers with the flexibility to achieve the balance of performance and data protection they need. Each RAID setup configuration is optimized for different storage requirements. With a RAID set of five drives, four drives are used for the RAID set and the fifth drive is used as a checksum A value used to ensure data are stored or transmitted without error. It is created by calculating the binary values in a block of data using some algorithm and storing the results with the data. drive. The four-drive set is written to in RAID level 3 and an Exclusive Or of the four data sets is written to the fifth drive. The controller effectively reduces the number of pieces of media in the library by a factor of five; however, the capacity of each piece of RAID media is 4x. This translates to a capacity equal to 10.4 GB when single-sided 2.6GB DVD-RAM discs are used. For example, document management software such as OTG's DiskXtender would only see a TeraCart AM250 library with 200 pieces of media as a 40-disc system. With this capability, large files such as broadcast-quality videos can be striped onto the RAID set without having to be concerned about spanning media. This approach is ideal for TV stations that want to implement automated programming. When DVD RAID is configured as a RAID set, the DVD drives also achieve faster data transfer rates -- 5.4Mbytes/sec for write transfers and 11.1 Mbytes/sec for read transfers. For even higher capacities and data transfer rates, the RAID controller can be organized in a cascade format. In addition, because the controller can handle multiple drives for each RAID channel, multiple drives can be ganged into a set. One of the advantages of the RAID set configuration is that a duplicate copy of the data is stored through the use of the fifth XOR (eXclusive OR) A Boolean logic operation that is widely used in cryptography as well as in generating parity bits for error checking and fault tolerance. XOR compares two input bits and generates one output bit. The logic is simple. If the bits are the same, the result is 0. disc," explained Chuck Larabie, NET Source's director of business development. "If any one disc is lost, the data can still be restored. And," he noted, "the discs can be loaded in any order, since a high-speed electronic switch, internal to the RAID controller, can restore the disc set to its logical sequence on the fly." Larabie added that network managers also have the flexibility to RAID 5 libraries together for a parallel, high-performance solution. However, this configuration will require the management of offline media because five separate discs will be exported from five separate libraries. The ASACA TeraCart libraries also utilize specially designed carriers that allow the library to track performance and usage of the drive mechanism itself. This data is available via ASACA's Web control panel and provides the administrator with performance and wear data on the drive mechanisms. Power-on hours and load/unload cycles are also monitored so system preventative maintenance can be performed when necessary. In the event that a drive needs to be replaced, the TeraCart library can take the malfunctioning mal·func·tion intr.v. mal·func·tioned, mal·func·tion·ing, mal·func·tions 1. To fail to function. 2. To function improperly. n. 1. Failure to function. 2. drive offline from the host SCSI bus. The new drive will automatically assume the SCSI ID (hardware) SCSI ID - The unique address of a SCSI device. SCSI IDs range from 0 to 7 for 8-bit SCSI systems, 0 to 15 for 16-bit and 0 to 31 for 32-bit systems. The SCSI adaptor is usually assigned ID 7. A device's SCSI ID is often set by switches on the device. of the old drive, so the drive is replaced without disrupting the operation of the remaining drives in the library, or any other SCSI devices connected to the host computer. Pricing, Availability ASACA's TeraCart Digital Virtual Libraries are available for immediate delivery from leading resellers worldwide. NET Source's new RAID option is available for individual libraries configured with 2 to 24 DVD-RAM drives to provide online capacities of 1.3TB to 7.54TB. Expansion cabinets are available for up to 60.3TB of DVD-RAM storage. The TeraCart AM250 starts at $30,000 and the AM1450, with 24 drives, is approximately $200,000, depending upon the options selected. In addition to the new DVD RAID option, NET Source offers an optional built-in PC server for Storage Area Networks and Network Attached Storage. About ASACA Founded in 1971, the ASACA/SHIBASOKU Corporation has its U.S. headquarters in Golden, Colo. A leading developer of high-capacity, high-performance data storage solutions, the company is focused on serving broadcast and data storage markets worldwide. For complete information on the TeraCart DVL systems, contact ASACA's Master Distributor, NET Source, Inc. at www.netsource.cc or call 800/653-1326. Visit the ASACA website at www.asaca.com. Visit the ASACA booth No. 9335 at NAB and the ASACA booth No. 2772 at AIIM. Note to Editor: All company and/or product names are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of their respective manufacturers. |
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