Arena Introduced PCIe SAN Solution

HD (high Definition) programs such as 2K digitalized TV programs and 4K resolution films are more and more common in the video industry. Facing an ever-growing demand on the video server and the storage, the capacity and the performance are the critical elements when choosing equipment for these applications. The SAN environments that supports multiple users on a single file system are ideally suited for this requirement, to date these have been Fibre channel hosted and expensive. Arena, brand name of Maxtronix, Inc., introduced the PCI-e SAN solution, ExaSAN.

 
Arena’s ExaSAN solution is based on the high performance PCI-e x4/ x8 bus architecture that provides maximum flexibility with unrivalled speed. The advantage not only its higher performance but also lower the cost over the traditional Fibre Channel hosted SANs. There are no protocol conversations to effect the bus speeds and this gives high performance editing, recording and playback. The SAN structure allows the data to be accessed and shared by all and easily expanded for future growth. This provides faster accessing to content for Editors and client as well as growing from a small solution to enterprise class SANs. The solution includes the RAID storage, ExaSAN host switch, and device switch, PCI-e HBAs, cabling and accessories.
 
ExaSAN is fully compatible with Xsan, Apple Inc.’s SAN or clustered file system for Mac OS, and it enables multiple Mac workstations and Xserve servers to share and access the same project. For example, three Final Cut Pro video editing workstations are able to access and playback eight 1080i 4:2:2 10-bit video streams from one ExaRAID HD and ExaSAN switch but it requires two or three high-cost FC RAIDs to reach the same performance. So, ExaSAN solution has more competitive advantages in terms of performance and setup cost.

Arena realizes that sustained performance is very important to sequential data stream of video playback so Arena has developed ‘Performance SAN Equalization Mode’ for ExaSAN solution which can effectively smooth the video streams and provides a sustained performance for the application of non-linear video editing. Users are easily to enable this performance enhance mode from user friendly GUI to get a stable and high performance.
 
Features:

• ExaSAN – a total solution for SAN infrastructure.
• Transfer bandwidth up to 20 Gigabits per second.
• Leading technology by utilizing external PCI Express.
• Cross-platform OS support (Mac and Windows).
• Support up to 12 host workstations and 28 ExaRAID HD systems.