EARTH SCIENCES

DataDirect Networks will showcase at NAB 2006, booth SL 2985, the complete family of S2A (Silicon Storage Appliance) storage solutions, S2A9500, S2A8500 and S2A3000. The S2A series of storage systems, integrates the latest in high performance storage networking technologies capable of delivering from 700 MB/s to 3 GB/s of sustained throughput, empowers users to perform true real-time post production collaboration or multi-stream delivery in HD broadcast, HD post production and mastering, CGI, 3D animation, and 2K and 4K digital intermediate service applications. "Our S2A family of storage solutions can easily scale to handle the bandwidth and capacity intensive requirements needed in applications like digital broadcast news management, HD post production and digital intermediate, empowering true real-time collaborative workflow in digital post-production and digital content management and delivery applications," explains Paul Bloch, President of DataDirect Networks. "The S2A storage family's high performance and scalability allows post production houses and broadcasters to utilize the many types of systems and applications needed to gather, edit and deliver in real-time regardless of file format and size." The S2A9500 is the lead product in the family of S2A storage solutions. Like all members of the S2A family, the S2A9500 storage solution has consolidated and fully integrated SAN functionality in one simple, easy to use intelligent device. The S2A9500 and its FC-4 and InfiniBand technology allows management of up to 480 TBs in a two rack storage system while delivering sustained real-time performance up to 3 GB/s, streaming concurrently six streams of 2K or two streams of 4K. The S2A9500 empowers artists to work collaboratively in real-time with digital intermediate 2K and 4K post-production applications. Like all S2A solutions, the S2A8500 has a unique zero-bottleneck architecture developed by DataDirect Networks that removes the complexity, congestion, latency and contention of switched fabric SANs and generic SAN RAID systems. The S2A8500 with FC-2 technology delivers up to 1.5 GB/s. of sustained throughput, making it the ideal choice for digital broadcast news management, HD broadcast and digital content management environments. The S2A3000 has the same consolidated functionality and unique zero-bottleneck architecture delivering up to 700 MB/s of sustained throughput, easily handling the bandwidth and capacity intensive requirements needed in multi-stream broadcast and delivery environments. The S2A Family with its open solution elevates the performance of heterogeneous shared file systems with Fibre Channel and/or InfiniBand fabrics to provide real-time workflow from multiple workstations with low latency and high Quality of Service. Each member of the S2A family can maintain peak sustained performance, even in the event of a drive rebuild or drive failure. The S2A family also comes with its own storage management software, ensuring ease-of-install, ease-of-use and ease-of-management of all system components. This exceptional family delivers real-time data delivery and allows users to consolidate and easily manage their storage, dramatically reducing their total cost of ownership and increasing their return on investment. "Post production, content creators and broadcasters for the first time can take advantage of the latest, most advanced and timesaving digital applications that require significant bandwidths and ultra-high throughput," concludes Bloch, "The S2A storage family of solutions will help to accelerate the broadcast news management, post production and digital intermediate markets into a completely digital environment, enabling true real-time collaboration that empowers production teams with multiple digital processes to accomplish more in less time with added time to explore greater creative potential."