Apple Unveils New Xserve RAID Storage System

MACWORLD EXPO, SAN FRANCISCO—January 6, 2004—Apple® today unveiled its new Xserve® RAID storage system, a 3U high-availability, rack storage system that now delivers a massive 3.5 terabytes (TB) of storage capacity, blazing performance of up to 210 MBps throughput and the industry’s most aggressive price for storage of just over $3 per gigabyte. With the new Xserve RAID, Apple has also introduced support for Windows and Linux-based computing environments, industry standard Small Form-factor Pluggable (SFP) connectors and 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 advantage of 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 $5,999, 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 and incredible performance. Designed with 14 independent ATA/100 drive channels, Xserve RAID provides up to 3.5TB of storage capacity, while the dual independent RAID controllers offer sustained throughput of over 200 MBps—high enough to support uncompressed 10-bit HD video editing using protected RAID level 5.

The Apple Xserve RAID has qualified under the Microsoft Designed for Windows Logo Program. Apple successfully completed all of the tests necessary for qualification for the Microsoft Windows Server 2003 operating system.

“This is the first time we are certifying an Apple product on our Red Hat Enterprise Linux platform,” said Mike Evans, vice president of Channel Sales and Development at Red Hat. “This combination delivers one of the most aggressively priced storage solutions available on Linux today.”

“We are pleased that the Apple Xserve RAID has successfully completed Fabric Aware testing with Brocade fabric switches in multi-vendor SAN environments,” said Jay Kidd, Brocade’s vice president of Product Management. ”Storage area networks are being deployed worldwide at a rapid rate as a scalable, high-performance networking foundation for storage environments. The Fabric Aware program is an example of our continued commitment to delivering end-to-end interoperability to SAN customers.”

“The certification of Xserve RAID with QLogic SANbox2-64 and SANbox 5200 Fibre Channel switches provides a smart and cost-effective choice for data availability and reliability within storage area networks,” said Frank Berry, vice president of Marketing, QLogic Corp. “For the first time, customers can take advantage of Apple’s compelling performance, density and value to deliver networked storage that is simple to set up and manage with Apple’s legendary ease of use.”

RAID Admin, Apple’s powerful Java-based management and monitoring utility with breakthrough ease of use, has been enhanced with new features to make administration even easier. RAID Set Slicing allows administrators to partition RAID sets into smaller segments allowing storage to be distributed on up to 16 servers, and RAID Set Expansion makes adding hard drives a simple task with no downtime required. RAID Admin also features enhanced testing and repair tools and a more intuitive user interface.

Xserve RAID connects easily to any Xserve or Power Mac® using the dual-channel 2GB Apple Fibre Channel PCI Card sold separately at an industry breakthrough price of $499 (US). This high-speed, industry-standard storage interface offers dedicated bandwidth with a throughput of up to 210 MBps. Apple’s PCI card comes with two high-speed 2.9-meter copper fibre channel SFP-to-SFP cables and accepts SFP optical transceivers for use with fiber-optic cables.

Customers with mixed platform networks and non-Apple servers can now take advantage of the incredible price performance of Xserve RAID. Apple has worked with leading storage network vendors to certify Xserve RAID compatible with popular hardware and software common in heterogeneous storage networks. These certifications include; VERITAS Volume Manager storage management; Candera SCE 510 network storage controllers; Chapparal RAIDar Provisioning Services; Host Bus Adapter vendors LSI Logic and ATTO Technologies and leading Fibre Channel switch vendors Brocade, QLogic and Emulex. Additional supported operating systems now include: Microsoft Windows 2003 Server; Red Hat Enterprise Linux v.2.1 and v.3; and Yellow Dog Linux.

Apple offers a choice of world-class services and support programs for Xserve RAID including 4-hour on-site response, 24x7 technical support, AppleCare® Service Parts Kits and the AppleCare Professional SupportLine and Tools program.

Pricing & Availability
The new Xserve RAID is available today through the Apple Store® (www.apple.com) and through Apple Authorized Resellers. Xserve RAID comes in three standard configurations, or can be fully customized to meet specific customer requirements. Build-to-order options can include additional Apple Drive Modules, additional cache memory and cache battery modules.

Xserve RAID for a suggested retail price of $5,999 (US) includes:

Xserve RAID for a suggested retail price of $7,499 (US) includes:

Xserve RAID for a suggested retail price of $10,999 (US) includes:

Apple, the Apple logo, Macintosh, Mac, Mac OS, Xserve, Apple Store and AppleCare are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Apple. Other company and product names may be trademarks of their respective owners.