Infortrend Shipping its SFF RAID (SAS-to-SAS and FC-to-SAS)

RAID storage expert Infortrend is now shipping the industry’s first Small Form Factor (SFF) RAID subsystems: the EonStor B12S-R/G1030 SAS-to-SAS and the B12F-R/G1430 Fibre Channel-to-SAS arrays. SFF leverages the benefits of emerging SAS technology and promises to be the future of storage with its small size, high density, lower power consumption, and improved acoustics. The product was officially unveiled on October 29, 2007 at SNW Europe in Frankfurt, Germany.

The 2.5-inch SFF drives are 70 percent smaller than conventional 3.5-inch drives, enabling them to deliver approximately 100 percent greater system performance in the same footprint. Because the SFF drives require 40 to 50 percent less power and run cooler, airflow requirements are reduced and less overall pollution is generated.

Both the B12F and B12S come with a SAS expansion port that supports the connection of Infortrend’s new B12S-J1000 JBOD using SFF SAS drives. The arrays are also compatible with the company’s recently released S12S-J1000 or S16S-J1000 JBODs that house standard 3.5-inch drives. These 3.5-inch-drive JBODs support SATA drives so users can reduce drive costs and build tiered storage applications—high performance SAS drives for mission-critical applications, and cost-effective SATA drives for near-line backup, distribution, or archives.

“The new B12 SFF arrays have all the advantages of 3.5-inch-drive SAS systems, such as point-to-point architecture, higher performance and efficiency, simpler and longer cabling, and compact connectors, but in a compact, energy-efficient design,” said Alex Young, technical and marketing director of Infortrend Europe Ltd. “With our fifth generation ASIC400 and support for RAID5 and RAID6, storage managers will benefit from the advantages of a smaller form factor without compromising on data protection and reliability.”

EonStor B12 Specifications