Enterprise Storage
SAS Technology Demo Counted a Success
LSI Logic Corp., Seagate Technology LLC and Maxtor Corp. last week demonstrated LSI Logics SAS (Serial Attached SCSI) controller and expander executing SCSI write and read commands to Seagates and Maxtors SAS disk drives. This first public demo is important from a hardware perspective and the technology will benefit enterprises down the road, said Kevin Gray, business development manager at the Milpitas, Calif.-based Maxtor. “Were spending a lot of money here and expect product availability in the second half of 2004,” Gray said. SASs major selling point is the fact that it is a serial technology, meaning it is point to point as opposed to the master/slave architecture of parallel interfaces such as SCSI and ATA. SAS drives are also smaller than SCSI drives and use thinner cables.
Read the full story on: InfoWorld
Space Station Storage Deal
Linux vendor SuSE Inc. last week announced a 2.4 million euro deal with the German agency responsible for assembling a storage system for the upcoming European component of the International Space Station (ISS). Data from the Columbus module of the ISS will be transmitted to a ground receiving station, where it will be stored on almost 25 terabytes of EMC Corp. CX6000 servers and backed up by some 70 terabytes of tape libraries. SuSE will provide the software infrastructure for the modules data needs, and run its Linux Enterprise Server 8 as the operating system for the storage network and other servers at Columbus ground-based data center.
Read the full story on:Techweb
Personal Storage
DMCA Ruling Could Make its Mark on 321 DVD Software Update
DVD software developer 321 Studios LLC is preparing to launch six new applications, including an enhanced version of its DVD copying software. This software is the subject of a court case brought under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). 321 Studios is awaiting a ruling over its DVD X Copy software, which includes a facility that allows users to make backups of movie DVDs. If the ruling goes against 321 Studios, the company said this new version of the copying software will ship without the “ripper” module, which decrypts movie DVDs and allows them to be copied. Other products in the new line-up include a DVD editing and authoring application that supports conversions to and from standard DV video, MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 formats.
Read the full story on:ZDNet UK
Storage Business
Quantum Cuts Revenue Outlook
Storage company Quantum Corp. last week cut its forecast for fiscal first-quarter results, citing slack sales of its tape drives and cartridge products. The company said it now expects to post a net loss of 6 cents to 8 cents per share for the period ending June 29, on revenue of $200 million to $205 million. Including the effects of foreign withholding taxes, the loss is expected to be 3 cents to 5 cents per share. The company, which has sold off several businesses in recent years including its hard disk drive operations, said it will post its full quarterly report later this month.
Read the full story on:Yahoo! News