X
Tech

Apple dishes up 5.6 terabytes of RAID storage

3U rack storage solution work with Xserve G5 and desktop Power Mac systems.
Written by Rick Broida, Contributor
Apple Computer announced today an update to its Xserve RAID storage system, offering up to 5.6 terabytes of storage for a price of $2.32 per gigabyte.

The Xserve RAID is a 3U high-availability rack storage solution designed to work with Xserve G5 and desktop Power Mac systems. The 5.6TB configuration consists of 14 independent 400GB Ultra ATA drive channels. Dual independent RAID controllers, each with 512MB of cache memory, offer sustained throughput of over 380MB/second, Apple said. That's fast enough to support two streams of uncompressed 10-bit high-definition video editing using protected RAID level 5, the company claimed.

In addition to increasing capacities, Apple expanded support for heterogeneous environments with certification from Cisco and SUSE Linux. The company also optimized Xserve to work with its Xsan Storage Area Network file system.

The Xserve RAID system can connect to any Xserve server or Power Mac desktop using Apple's dual-channel 2GB Fibre Channel PCI-X card, which is sold separately and costs $499. The interface promises throughput of up to 400MB/second, Apple said, and comes with two 2.9-meter copper fibre channel SFP-to-SFP cables and accepts SFP optical transceivers for use with fiber-optic cables.

The new Xserve RAID is available immediately in three standard configurations, but can also be customized based on customer requirements. The 1TB Xserve Raid costs $5,999 and comes with four 250GB ATA/100 Apple Drive Modules. The 2.8TB configuration costs $8,499 and comes with seven 400GB ATA/100 Apple Drive Modules. The 5.6TB configuration costs $12,999 and includes 14 400GB ATA/100 Apple Drive Modules.

Apple also announced today a $1,499 Power Mac G5 desktop powered by a single 1.8GHz processor and a new Wi-Fi-equipped iBook G4 notebook starting at $999.

Editorial standards