History (1995): Storage Dimensions in Tape Arrays

Storage Dimensions (Milpitas, CA) has introduced SuperFlex and MegaFlex tape array subsystems with modular capacity up to 56GB and 192GB respectively.

SuperFlex uses DAT drives only, MegaFlex can be configured with DAT autoloaders, 8mm or DLT4000 drives.

All products are compatible with Unix, NetWare, Windows NT and OS/2, as well as a range of data management software solutions including those from Arcada, Cheyenne, Legato and Palindrome.

Unlike other systems that force an array to act as a single drive, these subsystems provide separate, individually addressable Fast SCSl-2 drives, thereby maximizing performance through parallel streaming multiple jobs concurrently and increasing the effective throughput.

The MegaFlex enclosure houses up to 4×5.25-inch tape modules and provides parallel streaming of up to 4 jobs concurrently.

With DLT4000 devices, it furnishes up to 160GB (with 2:1 compression) per enclosure, with a throughput of 780B/mn.

A fully-configured MegaFlex tape array with 4 DLT4000 is $31,000. With 4x8mm modules, the subsystem costs $17,400. Finally, there is a MegaFlex version that incorporates up to 4x4mm miniloaders, each one including 6 cartridges, for a capacity up to 192GB with compression. A complete system lists for $21,070.

The second subsystem, called SuperFlex, is a tape array consisting of 7×3.5-inch DDS-2 DAT drive modules in the fault-tolerant enclosure, for an unattended backup capacity of up to 56GB. Handling up to seven jobs concurrently, it achieves backup and restore speeds of up to 100MB/mn. The system lists for $19,190 fully configured.

This article is an abstract of news published on the former paper version of Computer Data Storage Newsletter on issue 87, published on April 1995.

Note: There was finally no market for tape arrays.