STORAGE

At IBC 2004, Silicon Graphics introduces two SGI InfiniteStorage products, highly optimized to meet the unique requirements of broadcasters and production facilities, both of which are rapidly migrating to IT data-centric environments. The new InfiniteStorage line for rich media includes the SGI InfiniteStorage RM610 system for broadcast and SGI InfiniteStorage RM660 system for video production and digital film facilities. These offerings, based on DataDirect Networks shared storage systems, feature guaranteed high bandwidth I/O, low latency, and are easily configurable and infinitely scalable. These highly developed new storage products, coupled with SGI InfiniteStorage Shared Filesystem CXFS and expertise in designing high-performance SAN, NAS and data lifecycle management solutions, further expand SGI InfiniteStorage offerings for the media industry worldwide. Broadcast SGI InfiniteStorage RM610 rich media storage system is targeted to broadcasters and addresses multiple stream and low latency, real-time requirements by delivering increased reliability and substantially increased stream playout on SGI Media Server(TM) for broadcast systems. Preliminary benchmarking concludes that, with SGI RM610, stream count will almost double. Intended for playout, ingest, and newsroom and program editing, the RM610 is easily configurable as an ingest/playout server, a playout SAN, or a central repository serving nonlinear editing systems. Designed to easily integrate into existing storage environments, the SGI system can easily grow from a RM610 entry level playout solution -- single RAID controller, 4 Fibre Channel ports, 10 146GB drives in one drive enclosure and global spare (1.168 TB effective capacity) -- to a hefty RM610 playout SAN, with dual RAID controllers, 8 Fibre Channel ports, 40 146GB drives in three drive enclosures, and two global spares (5.84TB effective capacity). Production SGI InfiniteStorage RM660 rich media storage system is specifically optimized for production, including high-resolution capture from scanner, digital cinema cameras and telecines, resolution-independent editing and compositing applications as well as the growing number of digital film mastering applications for color grading and digital intermediate facilities. The specialized, easily scalable architecture of the RM660 lends itself to demands of multiple 2K and 4Kdata streams. As with the SGI RM610, the RM660 is designed to be extremely configurable, easily scalable, and to seamlessly integrate into the existing SAN or NAS environment. An entry level SGI RM660 high bandwidth, single application solution can be configured with a single RAID controller, 4 Fibre Channel ports, 27 146GB drives in two drive enclosures, with one global spare (3.5TB effective capacity). An example of a full RM660 production SAN would include dual RAID controllers, 8 Fibre Channel ports, 144 146GB drives in 10 drive enclosures, two global spares, and 38U rack (18.68TB effective capacity). Both the RM610 and RM660 are optimized to work with SGI InfiniteStorage Shared Filesystem CXFS to create a collaborative workflow environment where users, regardless of operating system -- SGI IRIX, Linux, Windows or Mac OS X -- are able to instantly share data, eliminating time-consuming data transfers and expensive data copying. The SGI InfiniteStorage RM610 for broadcast and SGI InfiniteStorage RM660 for production are expected to be available beginning in October of this year. The SGI RM610 pricing starts at US List Price $71,200, and the SGI RM660 entry point begins at US List Price $156,850. "Given the unique high-bandwidth performance characteristics, configurability and scalability of our new SGI InfiniteStorage RM610 and RM660 -- designed to easily manage, serve and store the massive amounts of data for digital broadcasting and the video and film production move to 2K and 4K, respectively -- we fully expect to increase the penetration of SGI storage products in broadcast and production worldwide," said Gabriel Broner, senior vice president and general manager, Storage and Software Group, SGI. "The combination of DataDirect Networks' storage offering and SGI's shared filesystem and integration knowledge and capability, make what we call a best-of-breed partnership for media SANs that will greatly benefit our customers by offering solutions that are optimized exactly for their business." Examples of SGI storage products that are a perfect fit with the new SGI InfiniteStorage systems for media include: -- SGI InfiniteStorage Shared Filesystem CXFS for cross platform collaboration, -- SGI Data Migration Facility (DMF) for data lifecycle management, which creates a virtual pool of storage among online disk, near-line disk and tape, and -- SGI Guaranteed Rate I/O (GRIO V.2), which enables the scheduling of dedicated bandwidth on a SAN for applications that require guaranteed high-bandwidth performance, such as film scanners, color grading and editing and compositing applications; and the full range of SGI video servers and standard SAN servers. "DataDirect Networks and SGI have shared a similar focus on the Rich Media markets for many years," said Paul Bloch, president of DataDirect Networks. "We are very pleased to provide SGI with OEM versions of our Silicon Storage Appliances, the undisputed performance and scalability leader in Rich Media and HPC storage. DataDirect's 16-year experience in the design and delivery of the world's highest performance storage and clustered file system environments, coupled with the rapid growth that has evolved our sales distribution model to be OEM-centric, meshes perfectly with SGI's leadership position in these areas and through our partnership will provide unparalleled solutions to Broadcast and Post Production facilities worldwide."