HD For Indies

NAB 2006 Storage:
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Hey all - so at long last, here's my NAB 2006 Storage wrap up notes. It took me so long to get all this transcribed from audio, emailed press releases sifted, brochures sponged for actual facts instead of "marketing copy', that I don't have the time/energy/inclination to go through another pass and format all this. So here it all is, a big gob of data, not in any particular order of preference.

Brief summary:
-ADTX is a manufacturer I'd never heard of, they were showing 4 gigabit fibre channel RAIDs running around 600 MB/sec from a single unit.
-Ciprico (which bought Huge) had some VERY impressive 4 gigabit fibre channel RAID demos - getting 1300+ MB/sec from either 3 large or even one small RAID chassis.
-4 gigabit was the theme of the show - G-Tech is getting into the game with their own smaller fibre channel RAIDs, as well as SATA and FW800 products. They make good looking stuff.
-inPhase was talking about shipping a holographic based recoring device -300GB/disc, 20 MB/sec writes
-LaCie has several clever new FireWire products
-Quantum was showing SDLT-600A data tape drives - essentially a GigE FTP server for timecode accurate video retrieval from data tape - a VERY interesting concept
-Aberdeen makes RAIDs and one user was raving on about their price and service

Read on below for more details....

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ADTX, makers of RAIDs, talking about Array MassStor LP

See related photos on this page

-3U tall
-fibre channel to host, 4Gbit
-15 SATA2 or SAS drives
-up to 500 GB drives
-750 GB soon, (just started shipping, not tested yet)
-dual redundant controllers with failover capability
-full speed through each controller
-created two 7 drive LUNs with a global hot spare (available to either one), each through their own controller, striped together at host on G5 and gets about 718 MB/sec transfer rate under under dual 4Gbit fibre, working with the ATTO 4Gbit fibre channel card
-off one SAS port, can get 585 MB/sec going into an Intel server with LSI pre-release SAS card
-700 MB/sec on Mac w/ATTO 4GBit fibre channel reads, writes are 623 MB/sec sequential, 7.5 TB raw capacity less parity and hotswap spares, RAID 6 in the config demoing that speed using SATA2s
-RAID 6 is like RAID 5 with one more drive for parity - can lose 2 not just one drive
-can add 7 JOBs to it, 120 drives, 60TB storage
-price point - about $20K for the fibre version, about $18K for SAS version with the 500 GB drives, 7.5 TB raw storage, turnkey ready to go except for cables
-control GUI through Ethernet port, Windows or Mac based admin utilities (Linux too)

-compatible with Xsan - they are showing it running it Xsan with two servers and a workstation running through a QLogic switch

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CIPRICO/HUGE

See this page for related photos

-RAID 0/3 in the first product I saw. During rebuild, speed is maintained, because rebuild is in background. Capacity and price point?
-2.5, 4, or 5 TB is the raw capacity, less for parity in RAID 3 mode
-these 3 are striped together running on an HP 9300 workstation doing 2K or 4K resolution, pushing 3 striped together about 1.3 or 1.4 GB/sec (gigaBYTES/sec)
-price points - 4GB fibre, dual link, with 2.5TB is $9K list, with 5TB is $15K, theirs is one of the few 4gbit fibre channel RAIDs that you can daisy chain'em together. With the RAID controller, took the standard one and put hub chips on it, daisy chain it like you would SCSI. Can begin with one, so you're getting 250-300 MB/sec per CHANNEL, as RAID 0, RAID 3 would cost you maybe 20% off of that for RAID 3. And then RAID 6 version, (like RAID 5 with another disk's worth of parity). The other one does 5 drives per channel, this one 10 drives on one controller, second one is a redundant failover controller.
This other product, 10 drives in a 1U chassis, but drives aren't user servicable readily since they are harder to get to (to put more on a rack)
-other product - 40 2.5" drives, 4 cannisters, each cannister has 10 drives, performance in that box is somewhere around 1.4 GB/sec from the ONE BOX by itself, since can stripe the four channels together. Each one has it's own 4GB fiber channel controller in a RAID 0 or RAID 6. RAID 6 will cost you 8 drives, so 3.2 TB of usable data in RAID 6, costs "a lot more than those", this is brand new, no finalized pricing, but hopefully guessing high as around $35K because the drives are more - one 2.5" 100 GB drive is same price (7200 rpm Hitachis) is about the same price as the 500 GB 3.5" drives. The biggest interest is for sneakernetting around a facility for those cannisters - 1TB per cannnister (800GB per pod/thingy with a handle).
-Running 4K Dalsa Origin footage. Worked quite a bit with Dalsa, and they've approved this situation which is Infiniband bridged, 20GBit per second per channel.
-4 of those 1U RAIDs, they have a 4 port HBA in the back of it, bridging 4GB fibre channel to 20Gbit Infiniband over fibre optic


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G-TECH

-G-Speed is a 6 drive 4 gigabit fibre channel RAID - the 3TB version is 6x500GB drives is just under $6K, smaller model is 1.5TB and is just under $4K. Ship date is June 1st, and behind the front panel you'll have hot swap modules. Sell trays individually? Undecided, but I encouraged them to do so for project swapouts and archive.

From the press release:

Compact desktop tower with stunning industrial design
- Storage capacities up to 3TB using SATA II drives
- 4GBit Fibre Channel interface - SFP to LC optical
- Sustained data rates up to 250 MB/second
- Supports RAID Levels 0, 1, 3, 5 & 6
- Designed for content creation applications
- SAN-Ready – easily configurable in shared environments
- Browser-based RAID configuration and management tools via built-in
Ethernet port
- Hot-swappable disk drive modules and fans, redundant power supply option
- Mac OS X & Windows XP compatible
- 3-year warranty


Available June.

They mostly make FireWire stuff, but are venturing into eSATA and fibre channel (as evidenced above).

G-Tech also makes, and drum roll please....REALLY..NICE...SOLID...RELIABLE drives. The number cause of drive death is heat in my experience for internal drives, and with external drives you get additional issues of power bricks/power supplies, bridge boards, cheap cables, etc. I've been hearing more and more complaints from editors about Other Popular Manufacturers' drives failing deep into a production, and no one has complained to me of a failed G-Tech drive. Part of that is attributable to the number of drives in the field - more Fords than Ferraris are going to break down. But the more I talk to Roger and his guys, and the more I work with editors (esp. those who can't afford a full backup set of data), the more I realize drive reliability is a Must Have. And so far, these guys seem to have it.

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FYI, I never did do the big in-depth coverage I meant to after MWSF in January for Kano, which had a lot of very interesting and impressive SATA storage stuff. They are worth looking into for uncompressed HD array needs.

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INPHASE TECHNOLOGIES

Showed (but I didn't see) InPhase Tapestry, their holographic recording product. Holds 300GB, writes at 20 MB/sec (yes, megaBYTES), and takes about 4 1/2 hours (250 min) to write a full disc. They also announced a 3TB autoloader, with capacity up to 6TB, and a hologrpahic video recorder. I have no idea what the price point is expected to be, they claim they'll start shipping to OEMs at the end of 2006. This sounds very promising as to how professionals will be able to back up their IT based video files from P2 and the like.

Got an email from their PR guy, answering some questions I'd sent:


Q: when shipping?
A: Initial units will ship Q4 06; volume shipments in 07
 
Q:what price point?
A: Initial HDS-300R Tapestry drives will sell for $15,000; media will sell for $125 for a 300 GB WORM disc
 
Q: Macintosh support?
A: We will have Macintosh connectivity but the roll-out will depend on the integration and test schedule of our software partner. 
 
Q: What interface (FireWire, USB 2.0, SCSI, what?)
A: The drive has been architected to support all the interfaces mentioned. We are debugging the SCSI command set now.
 
Q: Software to use on Mac?
A: We are working with SGL, QStar and several others who have video archive software.
 
Q: I saw the Quantum DLT-600A stuff and thought the MXF access was very interesting. Any plans to do something like that?
A: Yes, there will be a version of the drive that supports  MXF. 
 

Mike's Comments: Hmm. Well, first gen tech is alwas pricey and doesn't at first make good economic sense, and isn't an obvious home run. The good thing is the fact that it is a DISC - so random access, TONS faster (many orders of magnitude) faster seeks than tape. BUT....GB for GB, tape is holding it's own. Tape cost/GB is lower (for LTO-3, for instance), and drive cost is lower as well (LTO-3 again). LTO-3 is faster as well (by more than 50% if I recall correctly). So this is an intersting technology to watch, but the first gen won't necessarily make good economic sense for everyone.

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LACIE

See related pics somewhere on this page

The 2 big from LaCie - is RAID 0/1/JBOD, $970 for 1TB, $469 for the 500GB
-Biggest S2S - talking about getting RAID 5 in about 6 months
-85 MB/sec, good for multiple streams of , called Little Big Disk, is 2x160GB drives, is $400 for 160GB, 320GB is $799, 200GB is $649. Is bus powered so can run off a laptop. NICE PRODUCT!
-orange framed rugged drive, USB 2.0, FireWire 400, FireWire 800 80/100/120GB, 80 is $200, 120 is $349, 100GB is $399 is because is 7200rpm
-LaCie makes and sells tons of drives, I have 2 of the 1TB drives (the older 4 drive units) and 2 of the 250GB drives floating around the house. Use'em, love'em. I mostly use them for long term archive, not day to day stuff, though.
-but they have tons of other products for FireWire and SATA

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QUANTUM SDLT-600A

See this page for related photos

SDLT-600A

-is essentially a tape drive with an FTP server with GigE
-like a slow seeking offline
-36 MB/sec transfer rate
-300 GB cartridge
-standard SDLT (NOT LTO3), up to a month ago was the flagship product,
-last month another product that is 800 GB per cart
-early next year will add the FTP functionality
-GigE interface, can launch a web browser right from the drive
-using Internet Explorer, can see the contents of the tape
-wanted to see FCP, so walked around to that station...
-can access and retrieve via timecode from the data tape
-can do partial excerpts using TeleStream Flip4Mac using MXF
-list price is tabletop unit is $7500
-media cost is about $100/tape for 300GB
-only one root access - so only one user at a time
-access times can be long, about 80 (or did he say 180?) secs average seek time
-worst case 6 minutes to find something off tape (he said yes to that statement)
-Final Cut, showing Quantum SDLT-600A, GigE, one user at a time, can access, using Telestream's Flip4Mac MXF product, to get to individual frames on the tape.
-then the questions are these - can FCP archive or just retrieve? What codecs can be archived losslessly (or natively, rather)? What frame rates, frame sizes supported?
-more questions to be answered, but sounds very interesting, I LIKE the approach and product concept. For P2, Silicon Imaging, Red, and other cameras existing or future that are IT based and it isn't practical to shelve the original acquisition media, this is a promising idea.

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ABERDEEN RAIDs: high speed 4Gbit fibre channel RAIDs, 5TB RAIDs for $8K (that's a show special) - the guy who told me about them went on and on about great service, great price, great company (he was a paying customer, not a rep). Anybody from Aberdeen reading this? Contact me about a review unit!

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That's it for today as far as NAB 2006 coverage goes. Over the weekend (or Monday, haven't decided) I'll be posting about some Other Stuff, both software (plugins etc.) and, well, "other stuff" that I saw at the show that didn't fit easily into categories.

-mike