NAB 2003

GVS ANNOUNCES NEW GVS9000’s FORM FACTOR RACK MOUNT SERVER AND STORAGE SOLUTIONS FOR DEMANDING APPLICATIONS

[GVS9000™ and GVS9000 RAID (economical high-capacity storage)]

An open-architecture solution for the growing rack-mounted server market has been introduced by Grande Vitesse Systems, with the announcement of its GVS9000 family, a compact assembly housing featuring a unique redundant/fail-over, hot-swap (2x450W) power supply design, top-speed I/O buses and over 280MB/sec storage of over 3TB.

The GVS9000 family, offering powerful solutions for demanding data management applications, can be ordered in rack mount form factors from 1U-4U housing or as a complete package, including motherboard. Either way, it boosts the performance and improves reliability of the G4 processors it accommodates, while offering users various options at lower costs.

"This is an important development for users who want high density rack servers for their demanding applications, but were--up until now--limited to the alternatives offered by the dominant manufacturers," said Jano Avanessian, GVS Vice President of Sales and Marketing.

He noted the benefits offered by the GVS9000 family are critical for the most demanding graphic/CPU intensive applications. Among these benefits, according to Avanessian, is greater reliability, due to the use of dual power supplies in a total redundant and fail-over configuration, with high revolution cooling systems and heat sync. “Our unique arrangement positions the power supplies within the assembly in such a way as to facilitate maximum performance with no increase in noise or heat," he said.

The GVS9000 family can be equipped with dual 867MHz, 1GHz, 1.25 or1.42GHz PowerPC® G4 processors, running at speeds up to 18.3 gigaflops. It is expandable to an 18-bay configuration boasting 3TB in total disk space when combined with two GVS9000 storage systems into a 3U Form Factor device. Supporting Mac OS9, Mac OSX and Linux® operating systems, the GVS9000 incorporates hot plug Nomadic drive modules and Quad gigabit Ethernet PCI cards as well as 2GB fibre channel, with the most advanced high-performance throughput designs.

The new system is designed to accommodate the IBM 1.8 GHz PowerPC processor, to be introduced end of the year. It will accommodate the Intel Zeon® and P4® motherboards.

The top level of performance is achieved when the GVS9000 is used with the GVS Nomadic RAID controller, the first storage system of its kind to employ 12 hot-swap drives and dual power supplies. The GVS9000 storage introduced at NAB2003, is designed with SCSI-3 or 2GB fibre, providing up to 3TB of storage in a single 4U component, and up to 100TB in a six-foot rack. Its rugged design makes the Nomadic the ideal choice for the most challenging environments.

"Visitors to our booth at NAB2003 saw the combination of speedy data transfer rates (up to 340 MB/sec) and enormous storage capabilities for very cost-effective on-line data management and archival requirements, " said Avanessian.

Prices for the GVS9000 range from $1,295 for the base unit without processor, to $4,995, when equipped with the dual 1.42GHz G4 processors. Price range for the GVS9000 RAID is $4,995 to $25,000, depending on size and configuration.

GVS supports customers with a very robust service program including optional 24/7 live support and advanced replacement capabilities.

Because of its full range of high value products and its unsurpassed level of support, GVS is a leading supplier of custom storage and workstation/server solutions for the most demanding entertainment, scientific, industrial and government applications.

For additional information, contact GVS at info@gvsnet.com or Jano Avanessian, Jano@GVS9000.com, 415 777-3230.