PRESS RELEASE 06 January 2004

Apple Unveils New Xserve RAID Storage System

Delivers Incredible Price Performance & Support for Windows & Linux

MACWORLD EXPO, SAN FRANCISCO - January 6th, 2004
Apple today unveiled its newXserve RAID storage system, a 3U high-availability, rack storage system thatnow delivers a massive 3.5 terabytes (TB) of storage capacity, blazingperformance of up to 210 MBps throughput and the industry’s most aggressiveprice for storage of well under £2 per gigabyte. With the new Xserve RAID,Apple has also introduced support for Windows and Linux-based computingenvironments, industry-standard Small Form-factor Pluggable (SFP) connectorsand broad industry support from 11 companies including Microsoft, VERITAS,Red Hat, Brocade and QLogic.
“For the first time, customers running Windows and Linux can take advantageof Xserve RAID’s incredible price performance and breakthrough technology”, said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. “Less than a year after we shipped the first Xserve RAID, we’re now offering more power and more storage at an even lower price per gigabyte. With prices starting at just £4,799 (inc VAT), we’re offering an incredible storage solution at just a fraction of the cost of Sun, HP, Dell or EMC”.
The unique architecture of Xserve RAID delivers massive storage density andincredible performance. Designed with 14 independent ATA/100 drive channels,Xserve RAID provides up to 3.5TB of storage capacity, while the dualindependent RAID controllers offer sustained throughput of over 200 MBps —high enough to support uncompressed 10-bit HD video editing using protectedRAID level 5.
The Apple Xserve RAID has qualified under the Microsoft Designed for WindowsLogo Program. Apple successfully completed all of the tests necessary forqualification for the Microsoft Windows Server 2003 operating system.
“This is the first time we are certifying an Apple product on our Red HatEnterprise Linux platform”, said Mike Evans, vice president of Channel Salesand Development at Red Hat. “This combination delivers one of the mostaggressively priced storage solutions available on Linux today”.
“We are pleased that the Apple Xserve RAID has successfully completed FabricAware testing with Brocade fabric switches in multi-vendor SANenvironments”, said Jay Kidd, Brocade’s vice president of ProductManagement. ”Storage area networks are being deployed worldwide at a rapidrate as a scalable, high-performance networking foundation for storageenvironments. The Fabric Aware program is an example of our continuedcommitment to delivering end-to-end interoperability to SAN customers”.
“The certification of Xserve RAID with QLogic SANbox2-64 and SANbox 5200Fibre Channel switches provides a smart and cost-effective choice for dataavailability and reliability within storage area networks”, said FrankBerry, vice president of Marketing, QLogic Corp. “For the first time,customers can take advantage of Apple’s compelling performance, density andvalue to deliver networked storage that is simple to set up and manage withApple’s legendary ease of use”.
RAID Admin, Apple’s powerful Java-based management and monitoring utilitywith breakthrough ease-of-use, has been enhanced with new features to makeadministration even easier. RAID Set Slicing allows administrators topartition RAID sets into smaller segments allowing storage to be distributedon up to 16 servers, and RAID Set Expansion makes adding hard drives asimple task with no downtime required. RAID Admin also features enhancedtesting and repair tools and a more intuitive user interface.
Xserve RAID connects easily to any Xserve or Power Mac using thedual-channel 2GB Apple Fibre Channel PCI Card sold separately at an industrybreakthrough price of £399 (inc VAT). This high-speed, industry-standardstorage interface offers dedicated bandwidth with a throughput of up to 210MBps. Apple’s PCI card comes with two high-speed 2.9-metre copper fibrechannel SFP-to-SFP cables and accepts SFP optical transceivers for use withfibre-optic cables.
Customers with mixed platform networks and non-Apple servers can now takeadvantage of the incredible price performance of Xserve RAID. Apple hasworked with leading storage network vendors to certify Xserve RAIDcompatible with popular hardware and software common in heterogeneousstorage networks. These certifications include; VERITAS Volume Managerstorage management; Candera SCE 510 network storage controllers; ChapparalRAIDar Provisioning Services; Host Bus Adaptor vendors LSI Logic and ATTOTechnologies and leading Fibre Channel switch vendors Brocade, QLogic andEmulex. Additional supported operating systems now include: MicrosoftWindows 2003 Server; Red Hat Enterprise Linux v.2.1 and v.3; and Yellow DogLinux.
Apple offers a choice of world-class services and support programmes forXserve RAID including 4-hour on-site response, 24x7 technical support,AppleCare Service Parts Kits and the AppleCare Professional SupportLine andTools programme.
Pricing & Availability:
The new Xserve RAID is available today through the Apple Store and through Apple Authorised Resellers.Xserve RAID comes in three standard configurations, or can be fullycustomised to meet specific customer requirements. Build-to-order optionscan include additional Apple Drive Modules, additional cache memory andcache battery modules.
Xserve RAID for a suggested selling price of £4,799 (inc VAT) includes:
  • dual independent RAID controllers with 128MB cache per controller withsupport for up to 512MB cache per controller
  • dual 2GB Fibre Channel SFP ports with 200 MBps throughput per channel
  • four 250GB ATA/100 Apple Drive Modules
  • 1TB RAID 0 total available storage
  • 8MB on-drive cache

Xserve RAID for a suggested selling price of £5,999 (inc VAT) includes:
  • dual independent RAID controllers with 128MB cache per controller withsupport for up to 512MB cache per controller
  • dual 2GB Fibre Channel SFP ports with 200 MBps throughput per channel
  • seven 250GB ATA/100 Apple Drive Modules
  • 1.75TB RAID 0 total available storage
  • 8MB on-drive cache

Xserve RAID for a suggested selling price of £8,799 (inc VAT) includes:
  • dual independent RAID controllers with 128MB cache per controller withsupport for up to 512MB cache per controller
  • dual 2GB Fibre Channel SFP ports with 200 MBps throughput per channel
  • fourteen 250GB ATA/100 Apple Drive Modules
  • 3.5TB RAID 0 total available storage
  • 8MB on-drive cache

 
Press Contacts:
Apple UK and Ireland Public Relations
Email: media.uk@apple.com
Phone: +44 (0)20 8218 1440
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