LSI has introduced the Engenio 2600-HD high-density storage system, purpose-built to meet the demanding data requirements of high-performance computing (HPC) file systems. The system offers exceptional performance and a highly scalable, dense architecture that is designed to help HPC organizations maximize productivity and achieve a quicker time to results, while minimizing data center floor space and overall energy expenditures.

The Engenio 2600-HD system consists of two LSI(TM) 6Gb/s SAS-based controllers integrated into the new Engenio DE6600 high-density SAS drive enclosure. The system is capable of sustaining up to 4GB/s of throughput and housing up to 60 SAS drives in a 4U space.

The company also introduced a new family of StorageStak solutions, which provide LSI storage system customers with reference configurations designed to address specific HPC requirements and challenges. One of the first solution configurations in the StorageStak family is the DenseStak solution. The DenseStak solution consists of up to ten 2600-HD systems configured in a standard 40U Electronics Industry Alliance (EIA) rack to provide users with industry-leading performance of up to 40GB/s sustained throughput and scalability to 600 drives. Using three terabyte SAS drives, the DenseStak solution can scale to 1.8 petabytes of raw storage capacity. The DenseStak solution delivers the industry's highest throughput per rack and can reduce power consumption by as much as 23 percent and data center floor space by up to 60 percent compared to the previous-generation product.

"The Lustre and General Parallel File System implementations found in today's HPC market demand scalability in throughput and capacity without sacrificing data access," said Addison Snell, CEO, Intersect360 Research. "At the same time, HPC organizations need systems that can maximize the available data center floor space. The Engenio 2600-HD is designed for high performance and scalability in a dense architecture and is well positioned to meet the needs of a wide range of HPC customers."

Continuous data access and protection

The 2600-HD system provides high-availability features and extensive online administration and maintenance capabilities that are designed to ensure continuous access to data. Stored data is protected with enhanced features such as proactive drive health monitoring, hardware-assisted RAID 6 and persistent cache backup.

The high-density storage enclosure also features front-loading drive drawers that enhance serviceability and data availability, keeping drives online while the drawer is open. Controlled drawer movement allows each 12-drive drawer to be extended and individual drives to be replaced without affecting the operation of other drives, overall system performance or access to data.

"In HPC environments, storage solutions are judged by the rate at which data can be accessed, processed and distributed," said Steve Hochberg, senior director, HPC segment, LSI. "Performance is no longer the only criteria for meeting these demands as new challenges are emerging that make system scalability, reliability and density per footprint key elements of the selection process. The Engenio 2600-HD system delivers a high-performance, cost-effective storage solution that raises the bar on meeting these new requirements."

The Engenio 2600-HD benefits from more than thirty years of LSI design knowledge and storage expertise. With well over 200 petabytes deployed in HPC environments and more than 500,000 systems shipped across a wide range of workloads and market segments, LSI Engenio storage systems are trusted by the world's leading OEMs to deliver superior performance and reliability that meets customers' escalating data management requirements.

A demonstration of the Engenio 2600-HD storage system will be available at the SC10 conference (Booth #2946) taking place November 15-18 at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center in New Orleans.