Product category:
Printing Pre-Press Systems and Materials (Repro, Platemakers, CTP, Workflow, Document Management, Design Software, etc.)
News Release from: Silicon Systems | Subject: Xeus 64
Edited by the Printingtalk Editorial
Team on 15 September 2005
Graphics Server Answers Call For High
Storage
Silicon Systems has launched its fourth generation in dedicated graphic servers - Xeus 64.
Silicon Systems has launched its fourth generation in dedicated graphic servers - Xeus 64 Xeus 64 has been designed for the design, pre-press, publishing and print industries and is said to answer the call for a high storage capacity file server capable of accessing data quickly and reliably
This article was originally published on Printingtalk on 1 Aug 2005 at 8.00am (UK)
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Ahead of the launch of the new Xeus 64 server on September 12, Silicon Systems is conducting research in to the benefits 64 bit server processing will bring to the design and pre-press industries.
Its combination of 64-bit technology, up to 3.2TB of scalable storage and 3.4GHz dual Xeon processors provides a system that can be rolled-out within any graphics environment in either an active file serving or archiving role said Silicon Systems.
The server is completely compatible with Mac and PC and comes with unlimited client access, added the company.
Xeus 64 couples rapid data access with up to 3.2TB of internal data storage through eight integrated disk bays.
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The Lithocraft Group, a one-stop shop for design, pre-press and digital print in the UK's West Midlands, has boosted its IT storage capacity to deal with the increase in demand.
In the company's opinion, he ability to hold large quantities of live data will have an enormous impact on existing storage and archiving resources with less data requiring transfer to external media or separate archives.
The server promotes data consolidation and enables work to be kept live and accessible for longer.
Storage is completely scalable from 250GB up to a maximum capacity of 3.2TB, which equates to 2.8TB using a RAID 5 configuration added Silicon Systems.
There are eight bays available but not all bays have to be populated with disks at the outset.
When storage requirements grow, any spare capacity can be utilised, which enables customers to grow their Xeus 64 storage as they grow their businesses.
They can buy the latest technology now and expand it over a number of years and, in addition, memory can grow from an initial 1GB up to a maximum of 16GB.
Xeus 64 is built around 64 bit processing and key to its performance is the ability to move large files from one place to another faster then before, said Silicon Systems.
Traditional systems usually run 32 bit and there is a substantial performance gain in moving to 64 bit.
The Xeus 64's Xeon 3.4GHz 64 bit CPUs support hyper-threading and effectively split themselves in two, allowing one half to continue working even if the other is supporting a process-intensive task.
Those types of tasks are often associated with large data masses, such as digital images and layout and publishing files and, therefore, processing bottlenecks are commonplace within the graphics industries.
Xeus 64 allows those delays to be overcome and work to continue faster.
Combined with its storage capacity, the speed of access to work in progress and archive data can be improved.
Due to its architecture, Xeus 64 is said to support internal RAID 0,1,5,10, or RAID 50.
The ability to use parity and data striping storage techniques across high disk quantities provides fault-tolerance and I/O capabilities.
The company added that the motivation behind adopting a RAID 50 array came from the high levels of security it provides to data in the event of a multiple disk failure.
In a graphics environment where an inability to access digital data can lead to missed deadlines and customer dissatisfaction, Xeus 64 is claimed to allow systems to continue running in the event of disk failures.
With that in mind, the server also provides hot swap disks that allow the drives to be removed and replaced without the need to take systems off line.
Silicon Systems built Xeus 64 with SATA II disks, the latest generation of SATA disks, which enable disk transfer speeds of 300MB/s, whilst DDR2 RAM improves memory I/O and both PCI-X and PCI Express are supported.
They combine to create a high powered, fast throughput, file and archiving server, added the company.
A base unit Xeus 64 costs from £1,957, which Silicon Systems claimed, is lower than any comparable competing product.
Neil Dobson, Silicon Systems' managing director, said: "The brief for Xeus 64 was clear from the start - overcome the obstructions that limited data storage and throughput were putting on graphic workflows by creating a scalable system that applied the latest innovations in server technology and all at a reasonable price point.
I believe we have achieved just that.
We've taken our understanding of the market place, our development expertise evident throughout the Xeus range of servers and the experiences of our customers and provided a product that answers a real problem.".
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