New Rev of DiamondMax10/MaxLine III - 3G

[Dark Ember]

Here's some linkage:

http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/051010/sfm034.html?.v=24

Geez, I can finally talk about this now. Been waiting for the "official" announcement for quite a while.

These drives are actually a fair bit different than the curren SATA MaxLine III's. In terms of firmware, anyway. And they have a different ASIC (obviously) to support 3G and other features that most of us probably don't care about. More geared towards the nearline market, but still.

Discuss!

 

[DougLite]

Excellent. Since they have to provide a new ASIC (and possibly a new PCB) maybe they will take this opportunity to also introduce some performance improvements. Good to see 3gbps transfer, which is certainly useful for situations where multiple drives are attached to a single cable, certainly a requirement for enterprise systems. Hopefully, this will also put some more momentum behind the adoption of port multiplier support.

 

[Dark Ember]

Excellent. Since they have to provide a new ASIC (and possibly a new PCB) maybe they will take this opportunity to also introduce some performance improvements. Good to see 3gbps transfer, which is certainly useful for situations where multiple drives are attached to a single cable, certainly a requirement for enterprise systems. Hopefully, this will also put some more momentum behind the adoption of port multiplier support.

Yes, there is a different PCB as well. I don't remember what kind of performance numbers we're seeing at the moment, but I'll post when I find out. I don't think they have the "shipping" firmware nailed down yet, so it would almost be a moot point until everything is good to go there.

Yes, about the port multiplier. I think that is one of the reasons that they wanted to make this product. Port Multiplying is kind of useless at the slower 1.5Gbps interface. Would be nice to actually have a decent solution for that.

 

[unhappy_mage]

SON OF A...

The day AFTER I buy 3, they come out with a new one... Oh well. At least it's not a feature I would've really used. When I bought my DVD burner, it was a lot worse. I bought an 8x single layer for $140. The next week it was $70. The week after that they doubled the speed to 16x for the same price. The third week they added DL capability for the same price.

In any case, maybe it's time to look into port multipliers... are any out yet, or are the potential makers waiting on drive support?

 

[Dark Ember]

SON OF A...

The day AFTER I buy 3, they come out with a new one... Oh well. At least it's not a feature I would've really used. When I bought my DVD burner, it was a lot worse. I bought an 8x single layer for $140. The next week it was $70. The week after that they doubled the speed to 16x for the same price. The third week they added DL capability for the same price.

In any case, maybe it's time to look into port multipliers... are any out yet, or are the potential makers waiting on drive support?

They are around. Here is one I found with a quick google search:
http://www.sataport.com/
Its a Silicon Image model, 1 to 5 SATA2 port multiplier.

Don't feel bad about the purchase mage. The regular DiamondMax10/MaxLineIII is a great line. And it's not like these new drives are shipping today, its just a product announcement. So they just ANNOUNCED it a day after you purchased the others. You couldn't buy it today if you wanted to.

 

[unhappy_mage]

Don't feel bad about the purchase mage. The regular DiamondMax10/MaxLineIII is a great line. And it's not like these new drives are shipping today, its just a product announcement. So they just ANNOUNCED it a day after you purchased the others. You couldn't buy it today if you wanted to.

I know, it's just the principle of the thing.

Now, let's see. I have an 8 port controller, so 300 x 8 x 5 = 12 tb. And $134.75 x 40 = $5390. Plus 8 x $125.98 = 6397.84. And then there's my *other* pci-X slot to deal with...

Next from Maxtor, the 12 step program for HD addicts.

 

[Dark Ember]

I know, it's just the principle of the thing.

Now, let's see. I have an 8 port controller, so 300 x 8 x 5 = 12 tb. And $134.75 x 40 = $5390. Plus 8 x $125.98 = 6397.84. And then there's my *other* pci-X slot to deal with...

Next from Maxtor, the 12 step program for HD addicts.

Hah, 12 step program... like they want you to stop buying so many drives! I have a job because of people like you!