This week Sun also introduced 110MHz microSparc II controller boards to its Model 100 and 200 SparcStorage Array RAID subsystems, providing, it said, 25% better input-output performance over the current models which use the 40MHz microSparc I. The subsystems now also accommodate up to 16Mb non-volatile RAM cache, a 22MHz Sbus and are claimed to deliver 90Mbps transfer speed on sequential applications, up from 16Mbps now. A Model 112 with 12.6Gb starts at $23,600 while $39,400 buys a 37.8Gb unit while $55,20 commands a fully-configured 63Gb subsystem. The Model 210 controller starts at $13,000 and weighs in at $170,500 for 324Gb. Upgrades start at $7,000. The RAID lines can carry from 10Gb to 5Tb disk and are said to offer storage at 53 cents per M-byte. Sun claims to have shipped 12,000 of the subsystems in the 18 months since they began shipping against the 10,000-odd CLARiiON RAID subsystems Data General Corp shipped up to July this year. SparcStorage works only in conjunction with SparcServer, SparcCentre and SparcClusters systems though the fact that Sun has created a separate storage profit and loss centre as part of its recent re-organisation is a likely indicator of the way forward for this business.
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