Twofers--Love 'Em Or Leave 'Em?Mark Ferelli and Hal Glatzer HAL: Have you noticed all the twofers lately? MARK: Huh? Isn't that when you get two theater tickets for the price of one? HAL: I was thinking about storage. There's a trend among manufacturers to combine previously separate formats into a single drive. MARK: I think the word you're looking for Looking for In the context of general equities, this describing a buy interest in which a dealer is asked to offer stock, often involving a capital commitment. Antithesis of in touch with. is "multifunctionality." HAL: Right. But do you know what I mean? They're certainly pursuing multifunctionality in optical disk products. MARK: I've seen CD-RW (CD-ReWritable) The only rewritable CD technology. CD-RW disks look like other CD media, but with close inspection, they have a more polished surface with a very dark blue-gray cast. drives that also read DVD-ROM DVD-ROM: see digital versatile disc. A read-only DVD disc used to permanently store data files. DVD-ROM discs are widely used to distribute large software applications that exceed the capacity of a CD-ROM disc. disks. And 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. writers have always been able to read CD-R (CD-Recordable) A writable CD technology using a type of compact disc that can be recorded, but not erased (CD-Rs are "write once" discs). CD-R discs are used to master CD-ROMs, to back up data and to make copies of data for distribution. and CD-RW. HAL: That's the idea. But now I'm seeing DVD-RAM drives that also write CDs; and there's supposed to be a drive coming out this Spring that writes both rewritable DVD-RAM and write-once DVD-R (DVD-Recordable) A write-once (read only) DVD disc for both movies and data endorsed by the DVD Forum. DVD-Rs are often called "DVD Dash Rs" or "DVD Minus Rs" to distinguish them from the competing "Plus R" format (see DVD+R). . MARK: Do you think that will make DVD-RAM more popular? HAL: Hard to say. Pioneer has had the DVD-R format about as long as DVD-RAM has been available. But DVD-RAM has had more than two years' head start against Pioneer's new rewritable DVD-RW (DVD-Read Write) A rewritable (re-recordable) DVD disc for both movies and data from the DVD Forum. Also called "DVD Dash RW" and "DVD Minus RW," DVD-RW uses phase change recording. The media hold 4.7GB per side and can be rewritten 1,000 times. format. MARK: What about "plus-RW"--the DVD+RW (DVD+Read Write) A rewritable (re-recordable) DVD disc for both movies and data from the DVD+RW Alliance. DVD+RW media can be read on DVD-Video players and computer DVD-ROM drives. format that Sony and Philips have been promising? HAL: I know that some analysts think it'll set the world on fire when it shows up, because it's supposed to be the most reader-friendly of them all-- more compatible with the installed base of DVD-ROM readers and DVD-Video players than anything except maybe DVD-R. But it's already three years late; so I'll believe it when I see it. MARK: Likewise. How much of this recent move toward multifunctionality is for the users' benefit, and how much is just vendors hedging their bets in the format wars? HAL: If I knew that I'd be a rich man. MARK: No way, Hal. We're journalists. We work for a living. HAL: I do think that the biggest problem is that everybody wants to set the standards themselves. The DVD-RAM folks-that's Toshiba, Panasonic, and Hitachi--have gotten the DVD Forum A membership organization devoted to defining DVD standards for read-only, rewritable, write-once, video and audio use. Members participate in working groups to develop new standards. to include DVD-RAM in their specs for read-only drives, but it'll be years before there's any serious installed base that can read DVD-RAM disks. MARK: That's why Pioneer might be on firmer ground. Their new drive writes DVD-R and DVD-RW, and it's attractively forward-priced, at just under $1,000. If it can really make disks that any of today's DVD-ROM readers or DVD-Video players can read, then it's going to win. HAL: And drive another nail in the "plus-RW" coffin. MARK: Coming back to multifunctionality, have you noticed that it's a trend in the SAN-switch space too? HAL: Better bring me up to date. I've had my head in the drives too long. MARK: Don't stare at the laser-you'll go blind. What I wanted to bring up is that Brocade recently announced its first director-class product, called the SilkWorm silkworm, name for the larva of various species of moths, indigenous to Asia and Africa but now domesticated and raised for silk production throughout most of the temperate zone. The culture of silkworms is called sericulture. 12000. It addresses Fibre Channel now, and Brocade says that next year they'll announce Blades--insert cards for the switch-that'll feature iSCSI and FCIP (Fibre Channel over IP) A protocol for tunneling Fibre Channel data across an IP network. Fibre Channel was designed for local storage area networks (SANs), but FCIP extends the distance to remote locations via any IP network. See Fibre Channel, iFCP and IP storage. , which is Fibre Channel over Internet Protocol. HAL: What'll that mean to resellers and users? MARK: For resellers and VARs who want to offer SANs with both Fibre Channel and IP, that will put them into the IP space with all of the name-recognition and the R&D that Brocade can offer. And what's really interesting is that Cisco Systems's new storage router, the SN 5420, will cooperate with Brocade's hardware. HAL: That must be a first! MARK: It's unusual, all right. The only downside for users will be the price of Cisco's router--about $27,000. HAL: That doesn't sound like a fortune in the wiki-wacky world of SANs. MARK: Get thyself thy·self pron. Archaic Yourself. Used as the reflexive or emphatic form of thee or thou. thyself pron Archaic the reflexive form of thou1 down to the port level! The SN 5420 has one Fibre Channel port and one gigabit ethernet port. Do the math: that's $13,500 per port. But the average price of a director-class switch like Brocade's is only about $5,000 per port. You'd want to pair it with a router in the same price-range. HAL: I guess I'll wait for my savings bonds to mature before I buy a SAN for my office. Do you think that Brocade and Cisco are smoking the peace pipe, or are they just taking a breather between battles? MARK: Peace pipes for the present; war paint down the road. I think turf wars are a real possibility. HAL: Let's tune out the war news for a moment and get back to multifunctionality in optical drives. MARK: Okay. I think we agree that, in this industry, time-to-market is critical. So do you think those drives are getting here in time to make a market for themselves? HAL: I do think so; but let's ask our readers. If you agree with me, that multifunctional drives are the next big thing in optical disk storage, email me at hal_glatzer@wwpi.com. MARK: And if you're skeptical, or if you think that something else is looming on the horizon, email me at mark_ferelli@wwpi.com. |
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