S2A 9500 Delivers 3+ GigaBytes/Second on InfiniBand

LOS ANGELES, Nov. 9 -- DataDirect Networks, the recognized leader in high performance storage networks, has demonstrated 3+ GigaBytes (GB) per second InfiniBand performance from the world's fastest RAID storage controller. DataDirect Networks' Silicon Storage Appliance (S2A 9500) is capable of 3+ GB/second InfiniBand or Fibre Channel performance whether reading or writing data.

Designed for High Performance Computing and Rich Media, DataDirect Networks' S2A 9500 is 3.5 times faster than other RAID storage systems in the world. DataDirect Networks' S2A 9500 is a 6th generation RAID storage networking system, which can deliver 360 teraFLOPS with 1 petabyte (PB) of SATA storage. With FC-4 and/or InfiniBand front end server connectivity, Fibre Channel and SATA back-end disk support, the S2A delivers ultra-high levels of performance, scalability and reliability across a broad range of computational, visualization, and nearline environments. DataDirect Networks' S2A offers broad infrastructure support powering compute clusters from IBM, Dell, HP, Cray, SGI, Bull and others.

Designed for the needs of cluster applications, DataDirect Networks' S2A 9500 with InfiniBand connectivity takes advantage of the benefits of InfiniBand with increased bandwidth and connectivity per server, reduced infrastructure complexity and reduced power and space. These benefits can deliver up to 50% savings in overall infrastructure costs.

"The deployment of InfiniBand into scalable scientific simulation environments requires a commensurate quantum jump in infrastructure simplicity and flexibility. The mission of these environments requires a storage architecture that enables an extremely cost effective, scalable, and balanced I/O architecture that can be quickly and reliably deployed and operated while reducing complexity," said Dave Fellinger, Chief Technology Officer, DataDirect Networks. "These customers need a solution which is optimized for the unrelenting demands of scientific computing at a supercomputing scale."

"InfiniBand is the next evolution in clustering and DataDirect Network is leading the way," said Alex Bouzari, DataDirect Networks' CEO and co-founder. "The S2A 9500 is the next quantum jump in IO performance, scalability and reliability, and is optimized to exceed the unrelenting demands of cluster computing. With the S2A 9500, we are poised to extend our leadership position and continuing to provide cluster computing centers with significant benefits in performance, scalability and cost effectiveness."

DataDirect Networks' S2A 9500 InfiniBand solution allows High Performance Computing and Rich Media organizations to build cost-effective highly scalable primary and secondary storage. With the S2A 9500 organizations can create disk-based cluster solutions for parallel file systems and shared SAN file systems, high performance computing clusters and network infrastructures.

DataDirect Networks' S2A 9500 can mix InfiniBand and Fibre Channel connectivity in the same controller. This flexibility allows for seamless integration with existing infrastructure investments allowing IT managers to optimize their infrastructure to maximize the use of their existing storage, computers and network as well as extending its useful life.

Over the last three years, DataDirect Networks has achieved an astounding 150 percent growth in the storage capacity shipped to HPC and Rich Media customers, becoming the storage of choice for many government and defense, academia and research, and broadcast, digital production and imaging industries.

DataDirect Networks S2A family of products are in production in 22 of the Top 50 supercomputing sites in the world with major installations at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories, Sandia National Laboratories, PCS, NCSA, NOAA, NASA and NASA Ames, NERSC, SDSC, LNXI, ORNL, Argonne National Laboratory, CEA, Dresden TUD, and many others. DataDirect Networks' successes have included the deployment of more than one petabyte (a thousand terabytes) of storage behind the World's fastest supercomputer, IBM's Blue Gene/L, at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories as well as with a cluster of Bull NovaScale SMP servers and power "Tera10", the number one supercomputer in Europe.

DataDirect Networks works closely with OEMs, well known systems integrators, and advisors who serve the needs of High Performance Computing and Rich Media community.

About DataDirect Networks, Inc.

DataDirect Networks is the world's leading provider of networked storage and clusters for HPC and Rich Media. Providing SAN, SAN/NAS convergence, and cluster solutions for Government, Research Labs, Defense, Life sciences, Broadcasting, Digital Production, Oil and Gas industries. For more information, contact DataDirect Networks at (818) 700-7600 or visit http://www.datadirectnet.com