ASACA Firefly DM series achieves a new level of storage: virtually online. (Top Technology Showcase).

With the world producing 1-2 exabytes of new data every year, the question remains the same--where to store it. Beginning in the first quarter of 2003, ASACA offers a new storage area with the release of its new FireFly DM series digital virtual library.

ASACA has expanded the traditional three planes on which data reside--online, nearline and offline--to include a fourth plane of storage: virtually online (V-Line). This new storage level provides high-speed transmission of data on demand, similar to RAID, but remains dormant until needed.

The ASACA FireFly DM Series is the world's first electronic digital virtual library. Based on a silicon-switched backplane, the interface switches the disk in and out of the data circuit at 3gbit speeds. It uses serial ATA hard disk Technology to offer 12TB, 24TB and 48TB capacities for roughly 12TB per square foot. For even more storage capabilities, users can cluster as many as 10 cabinets together for up to 480TB of data storage. Each physical library has a sustained transfer rate of 400MB/s, and the FireFly offers up to four 2Gbit Fibre Channel ports, allowing you to mix and match JBOD, RAID-0, RAID-1, RAID-5 and RAID 10. Individual libraries can be configured with one to 192 200GB or 250GB Serial ATA drives capable of delivering 400MB/s of sustained performance to and from the library.

To ensure that data is safe and secure, the FireFly library uses Predictive Failure Analysis on every drive. ASACA harnesses what it calls Self-Monitoring Analysis and Reporting Technology (SMART) information provided by every drive and monitors the all drive statistics, such as head flying height, spindle speed, heat, ECC and sector re-writes. ASACA then creates a trend analysis to identify if a drive is going to fail. If so, it immediately performs an "offline copy" to a spare drive and takes the old drive out of service. All this protects valuable data and avoids disrupting the end user.

Just like the insect, ASACAs FireFly switches on and off for energy conservation. To minimize power consumption, the FireFly automatically powers the drives up and/or down based on access. When drives are "idle" the library, which runs on a mere 1,000 Watts, spins drives down. Drives have a 50K power cycle rating and spin up in 8 seconds from cold start.

ASACA's FireFly DM Digital Virtual Library systems, integrating 200GB MaXLine II SATA drives, will be available in first quarter of 2003 and 250GB MaXLine II SATA drives will be available in second quarter of 2003.

www.asaca.com