SGI to Display New InfiniteStorage 6120 SAN

SGI will showcase a number of new and innovative High-Performance Computing (HPC), data center, storage and Visual User Experience (VUE) solutions at the upcoming International Supercomputing Conference (ISC) 2009 taking place from June 23rd to 26th in Hamburg, Germany. SGI CTO Dr. Eng Lim Goh, an expert on next generation computing architecture, will also lead two technology sessions on the topic of HPC architectures of the future.

"ISC provides an excellent opportunity to meet with key industry thought leaders and showcase our ongoing strategy for continued growth in EMEA," said Joop Ruijgrok, vice president of SGI EMEA. "SGI will showcase a host of new products, including new HPC and storage solutions that demonstrate SGI’s leadership in data center and high-performance computing design innovation."

SGI will demonstrate new and popular HPC, visualization, data center and storage solutions, including:

HPC:

• SGI Altix 450 and the SGI Altix 4700 – Unique standards-based design that delivers versatile processing for the most demanding data intensive workloads.
• SGI Altix ICE – Integrated blade architecture designed to minimize system overhead and communication bottlenecks within data intensive workflows.
• Molecule – 10,000 processor core ‘Concept Computer’ that uses half the power and just 1.4 percent of the space of a comparable PC cluster.

Data Center:

• MobiRack – Mobile, all-in-one data center for field deployments.
• CloudRack C2 – The next-generation cabinet with high-density compute trays and MicroSlice architecture for cluster computing, data center physicalization, maximum compute power and cooling efficiency.
• ICE Cube – A scale model representing SGI’s containerized, modular data center.

Storage:

• SGI InfiniteStorage 4600-HD – High-capacity RAID with a new energy-efficient 60-drive package will be on display in LSI Booth #200.
• SGI InfiniteStorage 6120 – High-performance with best-in-class density and maximum drive versatility in a self-contained appliance.

Visualization:

• RemoteVUE – Software that delivers visual information to any user in any location, including on laptops, desktops, PDAs and more.
• FusionVUE – Software that dynamically integrates, simplifies and delivers information within a contextual, 3-dimensional VUEspace.
• EventVUE – Software that delivers automated data gathering and analysis across heterogeneous, high-velocity data environments to provide unprecedented visibility into information.

  InfiniteStorage 6120

  

  The InfiniteStorage 6120
  incorporates the following features:

  • Fibre Channel connectivity – The InfiniteStorage 6120 provides up to 4 individual 8Gb/s Fibre Channel (FC) host port connections, including simultaneous access to the same data through multiple ports. Each FC host port supports point-to-point and switched fabric operation.
  • Active/Active operation with cache coherency and failover – Both controllers operate in active mode at all times meaning I/O requests can be serviced by either controller from any host port and failover is transparent to the host.
  • RAID 5 & RAID 6 – The system is based on a high performance software RAID engine with default RAID 5 support and an optional/licensed RAID 6.
  • Configurable RAID group sizes – (5 or 9 drives per RAID 5 group, 6 or 10 drives per RAID 6 group). This feature allows you to configure the system with the desired RAID and redundancy levels based on the importance of your data. Each RAID group is configured independently and any valid combination for the number of drives in the array is supported.
  • Stripe size of 64KB, 128KB, 256KB –
  • Configurable stripe sizes aid in system tuning for the application’s data pattern. Stripe sizes are uniquely configurable per RAID set.
  • 2MB maximum request size – This is the maximum transfer size a host may request from the unit and covers nearly all commonly found uses.
  • SAS/SATA storage pool – This feature allows in-box storage pooling, where high-performance SAS drives are used for primary data and high-capacity SATA drives are used for secondary data or active archiving. Flexible configurations along with the intermix of SATA and SAS drives within the same enclosure is supported. However, for performance and reliability reasons, there are best-practice guidelines.
  • Optional SATAssure data protection – SATAssure technology is designed to improve the reliability of enterprise SATA drives and to ensure that data integrity is always maintained for all I/O operations.
  • Partial rebuild – This feature reduces rebuild times by updating only the data that has changed while the drive was down.
  • Hot-swappable and redundant components – Adhering to enterprise RAS standard, almost all hardware components–such as drives, controllers, power cooling modules, and drive expander module (DEM) cards–are redundant and hot-swappable.
  • Hot spares – The unit supports as many hot spares as desired and they can be allocated as global hot spares or assigned to a specific RAID set.
  • Comprehensive, centralized management capability – The InfiniteStorage 6120 provides a wide range of management capabilities via a secured command line user interface (CLUI): configuration management, performance management, and firmware update management.
  • Management options via RS-232 and Ethernet (SSH) –
    A RS-232 port and Ethernet port are included to provide local and remote management capabilities.