Winchester Systems offers external RAID disk arrays in multiple form factors; among them are the V8-3400 Series and the new RU5 and RU5e models, which are especially tuned for use in harsh environments. Designed for military use and/or to military standards, the vendor notes that the latest entries in the line (the RU5 and RU5e) could see such usages as emergency management, oil and gas, terrain mapping, seismic monitoring, etc.

- The V8-3400 Series arrays represent the rackmountable offerings in the line; each unit is 3U and holds up to 12 SATA drives. Four models are available offering U320 SCSI (2 ports), iSCSI (Gig Ethernet, 4 ports), or Fiber Channel (2 or 8 4 Gb/sec ports, two models) connectivity, respectively. The high-end model features dual, hot swappable controllers. Performance ranges from 415 MB/sec read and 264 MB/sec writes in the iSCSI model, to 892 MB/sec read and 461 MB/sec writes in the 8 port FC model.

"Rugged" features of the V8-3400s include a milled aluminum door with hinges; dust and moisture seals (top and bottom) and dust filters (replaceable); and the ability to lock-mount the chassis to a 1U tray.

The V8-3400s are driven by a 600MHz RISC CPU with support for up to 2 GB of cache memory per controller (512 MB standard). Up to 64 hosts are supported in the FC and iSCSI models, while 2 hosts are supported in the SCSI unit. Supported RAID levels include 1, 3, 5, 6, 1+0, 13, 15, 16, 30, 50, and 60.

Management of the device is via an out-of-band Web GUI or the vendor's optional FlashConsole appliance (with alerting features). Other features include dual power supplies, a 72-hour battery backed cache per controller (Li-ION battery), and clustering support.

- New to the vendor's product family are the RU5 and RU5e models, designed to MIL-STD 461D, 810E and 1472F specifications for portable RAID 5/6 data protection. The RU5 connects via SCSI U320, while the RU5e connects via eSATA, USB 2, or FireWire 800.

Both models ship in an 8" x 9" by 14" cube, and include a wheeled transport case with a telescopic handle. The individual SATA drives--up to 5 in each unit--are secured inside the enclosure via all-metal carriers with lockdown thumbscrews, and the box as a whole is cooled via redundant 65 cfm fans.

Management is via a Web GUI, with supported RAID levels listed at 1, 3, 5, 6, 1+0, 15, and 16. Access times are listed at 8.5 ms.

Winchester System's rugged disk arrays are available now, with the new RU5 starting under $10,000 (volume discounts are available). Visit the vendor's Web site for further information.