Adaptec Expands External Storage Market with Fibre Channel RAID Controller; New Products Preserve Mission-Critical Uptime and Make External Storage Easy.MILPITAS, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 17, 1997--Three new Adaptec (NASDAQ NASDAQ in full National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations U.S. market for over-the-counter securities. Established in 1971 by the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD), NASDAQ is an automated quotation system that reports on :ADPT ADPT Automated Data Processing/Telecommunications ADPT Adaptec Corporation (stock symbol) ADPT Adaptive Prediction ADPT Auger Depth Profiling Technique ADPT Automated Data Processing Telecommunications ADPT Adapter ) array RAID controllers will provide users with a simple and cost-effective way to implement external storage. The new products come in a canister design that fits into any standard 5.25" half height device bay, eliminating the need for custom enclosures or unique storage backplanes. This saves valuable configuration time, makes installation simple, offers flexibility for host system connectivity, and lowers the expenses involved in building external storage solutions. About External Storage Subsystems External storage subsystems are storage arrays -- groups of hard disk drives linked together in redundant fashion -- that are connected to a host system, or server, and provide high availability Also called "RAS" (reliability, availability, serviceability) or "fault resilient," it refers to a multiprocessing system that can quickly recover from a failure. There may be a minute or two of downtime while one system switches over to another, but processing will continue. , performance, and capacity to the end user. The external storage subsystem provides RAID functionality and is connected to the host system via an input/output (I/O (Input/Output) The transfer of data between the CPU and a peripheral device. Every transfer is an output from one device and an input to another. See PC input/output. I/O - Input/Output ) connection of some kind. Historically, that connection has been 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. , although recently, the I/O connection has evolved to more sophisticated versions of SCSI and/or Fibre Channel. External storage systems allow IS departments to upgrade servers without jeopardizing their existing storage investments. External storage subsystems are popular because they offer increased system availability and capacity, do not burden the host's CPU CPU in full central processing unit Principal component of a digital computer, composed of a control unit, an instruction-decoding unit, and an arithmetic-logic unit. for RAID processing, and are operating system operating system (OS) Software that controls the operation of a computer, directs the input and output of data, keeps track of files, and controls the processing of computer programs. independent. Three market trends are fueling the demand for external storage: the migration of mission-critical applications to PC servers, which puts new availability and fault tolerant The ability to continue non-stop when a hardware failure occurs. A fault-tolerant system is designed from the ground up for reliability by building multiples of all critical components, such as CPUs, memories, disks and power supplies into the same computer. burdens on them; the advent of clustering, which is better served by external storage than by host-based storage; and the rate of change of host server technologies. Because of these trends, external storage subsystems, which are widely used by mainframe and UNIX UNIX Operating system for digital computers, developed by Ken Thompson of Bell Laboratories in 1969. It was initially designed for a single user (the name was a pun on the earlier operating system Multics). customers, are now required by Adaptec's PC server customers. "Adaptec's external RAID controllers bring today's faster and more sophisticated system bandwidth solutions to companies that have traditionally shied away from those technologies because of their complexity," said Jim Comstock, marketing manager in the External Storage Subsystems group at Adaptec Inc. "We are working hard to bring the benefits of external storage to more users and to create a new paradigm New Paradigm In the investing world, a totally new way of doing things that has a huge effect on business. Notes: The word "paradigm" is defined as a pattern or model, and it has been used in science to refer to a theoretical framework. based on compatibility and ease of use. In effect, we're easing the way for customers to migrate to the next level of computing performance and availability." About Adaptec's External RAID Controllers Adaptec has developed three new products to bridge the gap between a host system's I/O and the external storage subsystem's I/O. They are the AEC-7412B, which connects a 100MB/s fibre channel host interface to the external storage subsystem at a maximum distance of 25m over copper or 10km over fibre wiring; the AEC-4412BS, which connects a single-ended SCSI host system to the external storage subsystem at a maximum distance of 3m; and the AEC-4412BD, which connects a differential SCSI See SCSI. host system to the external storage subsystem at a maximum distance of 25m. Each product supports RAID levels 0, 1, 0/1, 3, and 5, and comes in a canister format that fits standard 5.25" half height device bays. Because Adaptec also offers host system Fibre Channel adapters -- the AHA-F940 and the AHA-F950 -- and SCSI host adapters, users can implement an external storage I/O connection that is exclusively Adaptec and that meets user technology needs on both ends of the wire. This comprehensive connectivity solution is one of Adaptec's unique advantages in the external storage market and allows customers to preserve their existing storage and I/O investments. The new products are also field upgradeable -- the host interface can be changed on site as host systems are upgraded simply by swapping out a field upgradeable daughterboard A printed circuit board that plugs into another printed circuit board, which plugs into the main board (motherboard). Daughterboards, also called "mezzanine cards," augment the capabilities of the card they plug into. See mezzanine card. . This is not only convenient; it also preserves legacy storage investments while allowing customers to experience the benefits of new host system technologies and power, and minimizes costly storage downtime. Adaptec's new products are aimed at mid-range to high-end PC servers based on Wintel platforms, and at the UNIX server A medium to large-scale computer system in a network that runs under Unix. Unix servers are widely used as application servers and database servers and are available from a variety of vendors, including Sun, IBM, HP and others. market. They complement Adaptec's other RAID products -- the AAA-130 and ARO-1130 product lines -- that provide high-performance, cost-effective RAID for entry-level PC servers and Windows NT (Windows New Technology) A 32-bit operating system from Microsoft for Intel x86 CPUs. NT is the core technology in Windows 2000 and Windows XP (see Windows). Available in separate client and server versions, it includes built-in networking and preemptive multitasking. PC workstations. Adaptec is working with several storage enclosure manufacturers to certify product compatibility. Channel customers interested in obtaining a detailed compatibility list should contact Adaptec pre-sales support at 1-800/442-7274 or stop by Adaptec's Comdex Las Vegas booth No. L5202. All three products will be available through Adaptec's normal distribution channels in late December 1997. Manufacturer's suggested retail prices begin at $3200. About Adaptec Adaptec provides bandwidth management technologies for organizations building the global information infrastructure. Its high-performance I/O, connectivity, and network products are incorporated into the systems and products of major computer and peripheral manufacturers. Founded in 1981 and headquartered in Milpitas, Calif., Adaptec employs 3500 people worldwide in design, manufacturing, sales, service and distribution. Adaptec's home page is http://www.adaptec.com . CONTACT: Adaptec Inc. Eric Brown, 408/957-6645 ebrown@corp.adaptec.com |
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