STORAGE

SALT LAKE CITY -- Further increasing its performance lead in solutions to manage the world's most complex data, SGI today announced the availability of the SGI(R) Total Performance 9500 (TP9500) RAID storage array. The announcement was made at the Society of Exploration Geophysicists (SEG) International Exhibition, where SGI is demonstrating visualization and storage solutions critical for oil and gas exploration. The advanced architecture of TP9500 delivers the industry-leading bandwidth and capacity to tackle complex data access problems in industries such as energy, science, government and defense, manufacturing, and media. The TP9500 system's new performance levels are enabled by integrating the patented multipathing architecture of the 5884 storage controller from LSI Logic Storage Systems, Inc., a key OEM partner of SGI. TP9500 combines a complete, end-to-end 2Gb Fibre Channel design, parallel high-performance controllers and advanced cache management to deliver breakthrough performance. TP9500 also features a high-density design capable of housing more than 2TB of storage within three standard units of rack space, or over 20TB of storage in a single 38-unit rack. Additionally, TP9500 provides advanced high-availability and enhanced data protection features including full RAID protection, full redundancy of all active components, and optional Snapcopy and Remote Volume Mirroring capabilities. TP9500 also includes comprehensive storage management software allowing centralized administration of storage resources. "Across all of SGI's vertical industries we're hearing a call for higher-performing end-to-end solutions for managing complex data," said Bob Murphy, marketing manager, SGI Storage Solutions. "As one of the industry's fastest performing storage arrays combined with extremely compelling data protection options, the SGI TP9500 system marks a tremendous breakthrough for our customers." SGI TP9500 technology is currently being used in several industries to increase availability of data and handle the most challenging storage problems. London-based BAE SYSTEMS, a leading manufacturer of defense aircraft, vehicles and products, has been evaluating TP9500 to tackle some of its customers' most difficult data management needs. "We tested several configurations at different vendor facilities and were concerned that, due to the intensity of the customers' applications, we were not going to find an adequate solution," said Kenneth Clemons, mission solutions engineering specialist at BAE SYSTEMS. "TP9500 offered the greatest throughput and scalability, handling the application with no difficulty while other solutions failed -- we could not even provide enough load to exhaust the box. The solution was surprisingly impressive on all fields." Advanced high-availability and data protection features for TP9500 include: Snapcopy - The TP9500 system's optional Snapcopy capability provides an incremental point-in-time copy of a volume using only a fraction of the original volume's disk space. By backing up the Snapcopy volume instead of the active volume, backups are easier to implement and are done in less time, and applications are left unencumbered by the backup process. Snapcopy also provides quick recovery of data that may have been lost since backup through either operator or application error. Remote Mirror - The TP9500 system's optional Remote Volume Mirror capability can replicate data across a SAN fabric to another TP9500 or an SGI(R) TP9400 system in a campus-wide environment. TP9500 Remote Volume Mirror operates in a synchronous fashion, so application servers have access to a completely concurrent mirror of the primary volume -- providing for instantaneous disaster recovery and a complete remote replication of potentially lost data. Available immediately through SGI and its reseller channels worldwide, the SGI TP9500 RAID storage system, equipped with dual RAID controllers with 2GB cache, one high-density disk enclosure with three 36GB 15,000 RPM disks and a 38-unit rack starts at $111,990 (U.S. list price). In addition to the SGI(R) IRIX(R) operating environment, TP9500 also supports the Solaris(TM), Windows NT(R), Windows(R) 2000, Linux(R), HP-UX, AIX(R), Mac(R) OS and Novell(R) platforms in SAN and direct-attach storage environments. Attractive financing options are available through SGI Solutions Finance. Created to complement industry-leading SGI(R) systems, software and services, SGI Solutions Finance is dedicated to providing creative financial solutions, exemplary service and competitive pricing to customers.