Nethra 2U SSD Azores 100

Nethra Imaging, Inc. announced a number of high-capacity high-bandwidth networking and storage products. The products launched include Nethra’s FastPipe 10GbE transport adapter and Azores 100 2U solid state storage. The solutions leverage the ExpEther technology proposed by NEC Corporation in 2006 and are productized as integrated circuit devices jointly by Nethra and NEC. ExpEther offers seamless network and storage convergence across standard Ethernet Layer 2 switches.

                 Azores 100

The Azores platform provides immediate, fast, scalable and manageable storage to high performance computing and server-storage needs. It is optimally used where bandwidth is a key requirement.

ExpEther is an interconnection technology which uses standard Ethernet to enhance the scalability, reliability and virtualization capabilities of PCI Express, while still working as a PCI Express standard-compliant switch as specified by PCI-SIG. It seamlessly interconnects a range of PCI-express compliant I/O devices such as SATA, USB, FC, graphics adapters and more.

“The leveraging of ExpEther technology enables end-users to avoid the cost and complexity of FCoE switches while retaining the benefits of Fiber Channel storage and combining it with a faster and cheaper Ethernet infrastructure,” said Dr. Takashi Yoshikawa, Research Manager of System Platforms Research Laboratories, NEC.

The FastPipe transport adapter enables PCIe bus extension over 10GbE Layer 2 fiber moving PCIe switching functions into the cloud. This proprietary adapter ensures highly reliable data transport delivered with low-latency, low CPU overhead, high throughput, and extended operational flexibility due to IO virtualization. Former multi-hop, backplane configurations become single-hop cloud-based transactions with negligible latency.

Utilizing the FastPipe adapter, the Azores 100 solid state storage solution enables low-latency, high-bandwidth, remotely attached bulk storage to perform as though locally attached. In doing so, it leverages the built-in capabilities of ExpEther in low-latency, high bandwidth data transfer coupled with network convergence around Layer 2 Ethernet infrastructure. The Azores-100 series delivers up to 3.2 GigaBytes per second read bandwidth, in a 2U high rack-mounted unit, consuming less than 250 Watts.

“The Azores platform provides immediate, fast, scalable and manageable storage to high performance computing and server-storage needs. It is optimally used where bandwidth is a key requirement,” said Manu Pillai, VP Business Development, Nethra.

The FastPipe adapter when used in advanced storage solution enables multiple storage protocols including Fibre Channel SAN storage to be moved onto a unified Layer 2 Ethernet interconnect using standard off-the-shelf Ethernet switch technology. “The ability to converge multiple protocols onto Layer 2 Ethernet with the FastPipe adapter, combined with the availability of value-priced 10G switches from multiple vendors is a key operating cost attribute in diverse data centers, delivering value directly to the bottom line of end-users,” said Dr. Frederic ‘Rick’ Carlson, CTO of Nethra.

The Azores platform with FastPipe adapter integration, is being demonstrated at the Nethra booth at Storage Visions 2010, with the Azores platform now available for sale to the OEM and SI channels.

"Nethra’s introduction of products using NEC’s ExpEther technology enabling fast networked storage throughput using conventional Ethernet technology will enable the next generation of stereoscopic, high resolution content creation and distribution," said Tom Coughlin, president of Coughlin Associates and Chairman of the annual Storage Visions Conference  in Las Vegas. He continued: "Storage Visions is honored to have Nethra and NEC reveal this game-changing technology at the 2010 Storage Visions Conference."