Isilon offers '3D TV' streaming performance

Data storage capacity and performance requirements have increased rapidly

Clustered storage firm Isilon has upgraded its OneFS storage appliance firmware operating system to version 5.0, and added a platform extension called IQ Accelerator-x.

Brett Helsel, engineering senior vice president at Isilon, said that the launch is "all about performance".

"OneFS can scale from four terabytes to 2.3 petabytes in a single file system, and the Accelerator-x can cache and move network data faster to our clustered file store due to the onboard dual 10 gigabit Ethernet connections," he added.

Helsel pointed out two reasons why data storage capacity and performance requirements have increased rapidly: media firms' increasing use of compressed high definition streams, and the movement to '3D' television feeds.

Phil Crocker, EMEA marketing director at Isilon, claimed that Accelerator-x will support front-end clustered storage nodes and use Infiniband links for intra-cluster connections and 10GbE for linking remote clusters together.

The optional copper network interface card is a Chelsio 10 GbE system, which could use network cabling conforming to the IEEE 802.3an standard ratified in 2006.

This allows systems to run copper cabling up to 100 metres and run data at 10Gbit/s through it. Crocker pointed to Channel 5 as one of Isilon's recent UK customer wins.

There are one GbE and 10 GbE models of isilon's Accelerator-x system, with both using Intel Quad-Core processors.

The 10GbE model can use 32GB of system memory for caching data, and Helsel said that the Accelerator-x would normally be deployed as a redundant "high availability" pair.