3Par kit promises storage boost

3Par's storage platform includes thin provisioning built into a dedicated chip

Utility storage vendor 3Par has claimed an industry first with a storage platform that includes thin provisioning built into a dedicated chip.

The firm said that its InServ T-Class platform will provide improved storage performance.

Storage requirements are normally handled by a system's main processor and share resources with other tasks.

3Par's new platform features an Application Specific Integrated Circuit which offers all the software required to provision systems on a dedicated chip so that it can be offloaded from the main processor.

The T-Class has two models, the T-400 and T-800, which can have a maximum of four and eight storage controllers installed respectively.

The platform supports Fibre Channel and iSCSI protocols, and uses gigabit Ethernet for remote data replication between storage arrays.

The drives can be either 10K-15K rpm FC drives or 7K rpm serial ATA. The T-800 can support up to 1,280 disk drives, and up to 128 4Gbit/s FC connections. 3Par's current software release is certified to 600TB.

Prices start at £75,000 + VAT.