Fiber Channel Disk Arrays

The VideoRaid fc and VideoRack fcx are SAN-Ready Fiber Channel RAID solutions for digital content creation and Internet streaming media applications. The four-drive VideoRaid fc (a compact desktop model) and VideoRack fcx (a dual-channel, 19" rack-mount system with up to eight removable drive modules) offer sustained data transfer rates of 65 MB/second (per channel in the VideoRack fcx) and capacities to 600 GB.

Both products can be easily configured as either local storage for single workstations or employed in SAN environments enabling a workgroup of Macintosh and Windows NT systems to share files. The disk arrays are compatible with fiber channel hubs, fabric switches and SAN management software and are ideal for building low-cost SANs for non-linear editing applications.

As video storage requirements grow, both arrays can be easily connected in a Fiber Channel Arbitrated Loop (FC-AL) using inexpensive copper cabling. In the FC-AL configuration, up to 126 VideoRaid fc and VideoRack fcx disk arrays - over 75 terabytes of storage - can be attached to a single NLE workstation. Both subsystems attach to any fiber channel equipped Macintosh, or PC (Windows 98/NT/2000) system, and the on-board hardware RAID controller eliminates the need for disk striping software or configuring drive stripe sets. VideoRaid fc and each channel of VideoRack fcx looks like one large drive to the operating system, allowing users to simply attach the system to a fiber channel host adapter and initialize the array as if it were a single disk drive. Both products support all popular non-linear video editing systems, including multi-stream and uncompressed systems. The products are also compatible with systems running Microsoft Windows Media Services, Real Networks RealServer and Apple QuickTime Streaming Server.

Medea Corp., 5701 Lindero Canyon Road, Bldg. 3-100, Westlake Village, CA 91362. Tel: 818-597-7645; Fax: 818-597-7643.