Nexsan Rolls Out Infinisan ATAboy2 Correct Cost Raid Solution With 75% Capacity

Boost, Enhanced Performance Features

WOODLAND HILLS, Calif., Dec. 3, 2001 - Nexsan Technologies today unveiled an enhanced version of its InfiniSANT ATAboyT storage solution that delivers significant upgrades in capacity and performance, while providing the same unique combination of high availability and affordability as the previous products.

The new InfiniSAN ATAboy 2 features a 14-bay enclosure, providing more than 75 percent more capacity over the previous eight-bay model. The innovative ATAboy architecture provides a comparable performance boost with the increase in drive density, leveraging Nexsan's proprietary ATA silicon on its own RAID controller to scale up data throughput. Instead of opting for the conventional design of putting dual ATA drives on each bus, the Nexsan design allocates a private bus for each of the 14 ATA drives, generating improved data throughput, improved reliability and the ability to hot-plug each individual drive.

Nexsan will also be offering the ATAboy 2 in high-availability model with support for dual RAID controllers in an active/active configuration with automatic failover support. This high-performance configuration using Ultra160 SCSI host data paths pushes throughput to 250 MB/s for sequential reads. Nexsan will offer active-active versions of the ATAboy with Ultra320 SCSI and Fibre Channel host connections in 2002.

"The InfiniSAN ATAboy's unprecedented performance and pricing has created a new product class: affordable enterprise-class storage," said Diamond Lauffin, Nexsan's Senior Executive Vice President. "The ATAboy 2 delivers those same advantages of advanced ATA drive technology, combined with Nexsan's firmware, controller and software innovations to provide our customers with an even more powerful storage solution. The ATAboy 2 pushes our concept of cost-correct storage to the next level."

The InfiniSAN ATAboy 2 provides enterprise-class features and functionality in a low profile - 14 drives in a 3U rack mount enclosure - cost-correct, expandable package. The ATAboy 2 is also available in tower and stacker models. Unquestioned reliability results from utilizing redundancy and the latest advancements in RAID technology. Nexsan's new ATAboy 2 ATA disk-based technology provides "Next Generation" performance, reliability and high data availability for the most demanding storage and data-delivery applications.

Nexsan designed the InfiniSAN ATAboy 2 architecture for maximum flexibility and scalability. All critical components - including the RAID controllers and host connections - are user-pluggable to simplify upgrades and service, and enable customers to maximize the return on their storage hardware investment by extending the life of the InfiniSAN with upgrades for enhanced performance and functionality. Optional dual Ultra160 SCSI host data paths generate maximum data throughput and eliminate a single point of failure that could cripple data availability. With both host data ports enabled, the ATAboy 2 delivers sequential read performance of up to 140 MB/s. The ATAboy 2 is field-upgradable, with Nexsan planning to offer support for Ultra320 SCSI in mid-2002.

The ATAboy 2 is built around a full 64-bit internal PCI architecture and is powered by a 64-bit MIPS Dual-issue 350 MHz Superscalar CPU and incorporate supports up to 256MB of ECC memory and a standard 128MB cache protected by a 1600 mAh capacity NiMH battery backup that allows the RAM cache to retain data for at least 72 hours.

Nexsan's advanced RAID design allows single or multiple drive to be designated as hot spares. The ATAboy 2 ensures dependable hot swapping of drives by combining a custom unitized ATA connector specially designed for drive-plugging operations and an electronic soft-start capability that further enhances reliability when hot swapping. RAID Levels 0, 1, 4 and 5 are supported and users also have the option to configure the InfiniSAN array as multiple LUNs to maximize the utilization of available storage capacity. The current InfiniSAN RAID architecture has the ability to support ATA disk in excess of 128 GB, with the flexibility to support even higher capacities with Nexsan's proprietary ATAengineT with soft-reconfigurable FPGAs, allowing field updates of the ATA interface design. Remote firmware updates are supported using FTP.

Nexsan's next-generation RAID technology is serviced with a robust enclosure architecture with an enterprise-class feature set. The ATAboy 2 incorporates dual 450 watt power supplies with autoranging and PFC coupled with four centrifugal blowers with true tachometer monitoring and second generation anti-Rotational-Vibration design features. The new design features four VHDCI host connectors with automatic termination and improved EMC shielding. Nexsan's newest ATAboy model includes support for S.M.A.R.T. predictive failure monitoring, 256 levels of Command Tag Queuing, SCSI Enclosure Services (SES) and Domain Validation.

The advanced hardware design of the InfiniSAN ATAboy 2 is supported by Nexsan's Extreme Intelligence Software, NexSCANT, providing sophisticated centralized management and monitoring of all InfiniSAN subsystems. The latest version of NexSCAN as implemented on the ATAboy 2 offers enhanced performance and improved graphics interface with a more user-friendly look and feel. NexSCAN enables an administrator to configure and monitor the subsystem using a standard web browser. The standard 10/100 Ethernet port on the ATAboy 2 allows the array to be viewed by any web browser with a simple logon, and the new streamlined interface allows even less experienced technicians easily configure and manage the InfiniSAN array. IP addresses can be assigned automatically with DHCP, manually using IP gleaning, or via web page and DNS support is provided for symbolic addresses. The comprehensive NexSCAN software displays the status of status of disk drives, power supplies, fans, RAID controller, sends e-mail alerts on system warnings and errors, provides single click access to summary of all problems and warnings and automatically logs significant events on disk.

About Nexsan Technologies
Nexsan Technologies is an engineering design and manufacturing technologies company based in Woodland Hills, California. The company creates and delivers storage-centric hardware and application-based solutions worldwide through one of the most diverse and established networks of professionals in the storage industry. Next generation Nexsan storage products are designed for corporate, graphics, medical imaging, animation and special effects, real time/event monitored/ online/off site storage, internet delivered content, financial on-line transaction data, music and voice, video security, digital film, and document imaging. For more information, please see the company's web site at http://www.nexsan.com

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