Vik

Netgear Expands ReadyNAS Lineup with Intel Denverton Atom Platform
  • Comments are Closed

Netgear Expands ReadyNAS Lineup with Intel Denverton Atom Platform

Netgear’s CES 2017 announcements include a trio of updates to their ReadyNAS network-attached storage lineup. Back in September 2016, Netgear announced one of the first NAS lineups based on Intel’s Broadwell DE (Xeon D / Pentium D) platform. While the ReadyNAS 520 series used the dual-core Intel Pentium D-1508 SoC, the ReadyNAS 620 series used the quad-core Xeon D-1521 SoC. At the time of introduction, only 6-bay models were available in both the series. As part of the CES announcements, the ReadyNAS 520 series is expanding with 4- and 8-bay models. The ReadyNAS 620 series is getting a 8-bay model in addition to the existing 6-bay model. We will come back to the ReadyNAS 520 and 620 series later on in this piece.

The major new product announcement in the ReadyNAS lineup is the ReadyNAS 420 series, which comes in 2-bay (RN 422) and 4-bay (RN 424) variants. Both are based on the dual-core Intel Atom C3338 SoC. Based on the Goldmont Atom micro-architecture, Denverton shows that Intel is committed to a cost-effective server solution based on the Intel Atom platform, while retaining Xeon D and Pentium D for solutions offering better performance at a premium.

Note that the ReadyNAS 420 series comes with only Gigabit LAN ports, while the 520 and 620 series are equipped with 10GBASE-T ports. The specifications of the new members in the 520 and 620 series are provided below.

An interesting aspect is the Bluetooth dongle, which allows IT administrators to quickly check up on the status of the NAS unit from a mobile device.

Similar to the current ReadyNAS units, the new ones also deliver the advantages resulting from Netgear’s adaptation of the btrfs file system along with a mdadm RAID management layer. Various backup and remote access strategies are supported with the ReadyDR and ReadyCLOUD packages. Despite the major focus on gearing up ReadyNAS solutions towards business use-cases, there is also support for prosumers interested in multimedia streaming – the ReadyNAS 620 series supports streaming and real-time transcoding of multiple 4K streams, while the 520 series supports streaming and real-time transcoding for multiple 1080p or a single 4K stream (based on the CPU capabilities).

The current pricing of the various ReadyNAS models are specificed in the table below.

Netgear ReadyNAS Pricing Table [ Q1 2017 ]
Model MSRP
ReadyNAS 420 Series  
RN 422 USD 450
RN 424 USD 650
   
ReadyNAS 520 Series  
RN 524X USD 900
RN 526X USD 1200
RN 528X USD 1600
   
ReadyNAS 620 Series  
RN 626X USD 1700
RN 628X USD 2000

The RN 528X and RN 628X are available immediately, while the other new models (RN 524X, RN 422 and RN 424) are slated to become available later this quarter.

All models are backed up by a 5-year warranty, with multiple support options available (including next business-day parts replacement) – something attractive to IT administrators. In summary, Netgear has taken the lead in introducing commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) NAS units based on the latest hardware platforms from Intel. The OS features and allied packages are very attractive to business users, despite other NAS vendors providing a OS with more features for prosumers.

Western Digital Announces WD Black PCIe SSD
  • Comments are Closed

Western Digital Announces WD Black PCIe SSD

Western Digital has announced the WD Black PCIe SSD, their first PCIe SSD for the consumer market. While the WD Green and WD Blue SSDs introduced last fall were relatively minor updates to existing SanDisk products, the WD Black is an all-new product. The WD Black is aimed at the cheaper half of the M.2 PCIe SSD market rather than competing for the highest performance: it will be available in 256GB and 512GB capacities for $109 and $199.99 respectively, making it cheaper than any currently available M.2 PCIe SSD except the Intel 600p. The WD Black most likely uses the Marvell 88SS1093 controller and 15nm TLC NAND, a combination that will also be found in Plextor’s upcoming M8Se (albeit with different firmware).

Write endurance ratings are 80 TB and 160 TB for the 256GB and 512GB models respectively, which are the lowest for this product class. On the other hand, the WD Black will carry a 5-year warranty and 1.75M hour MTTF rating.

WD Black PCIe SSD Series Specifications
Capacity 256GB 512GB
Form Factor M.2 2280
Interface PCIe 3.0 x4 NVMe
Controller Marvell 88SS1093 ?
NAND SanDisk 15nm TLC ?
Sequential Read 2050 MB/s
Sequential Write 700 MB/s 800 MB/s
Random Read (4 KB) IOPS 170k 170k
Random Write (4 KB) IOPS 130k 134k
Power Peak 8.25 W
Idle 5.5 mW
Endurance 80 TBW 160 TBW
Encryption none
Warranty 5 years
Price $109 $199.99

The WD Black does not appear to include any heatspreaders, but Western Digital’s firmware includes advanced power and thermal management algorithms that WD claims will allow for consistent performance and low power consumption. The WD Black is rated for operating temperatures up to 70°C, so it may engage thermal throttling at a lower temperature than some other PCIe SSD. (For example, the OCZ RD400 throttles around 80°C.)

The WD Black PCIe SSD will be available in the first half of 2017. With this announcement, Micron’s Crucial is now the only major consumer SSD brand that does not have any PCIe SSDs. Last summer Micron abandoned plans for a Balistix TX3 product based on their 3D TLC NAND and Silicon Motion’s SM2260 controller.

Netgear Expands ReadyNAS Lineup with Intel Denverton Atom Platform
  • Comments are Closed

Netgear Expands ReadyNAS Lineup with Intel Denverton Atom Platform

Netgear’s CES 2017 announcements include a trio of updates to their ReadyNAS network-attached storage lineup. Back in September 2016, Netgear announced one of the first NAS lineups based on Intel’s Broadwell DE (Xeon D / Pentium D) platform. While the ReadyNAS 520 series used the dual-core Intel Pentium D-1508 SoC, the ReadyNAS 620 series used the quad-core Xeon D-1521 SoC. At the time of introduction, only 6-bay models were available in both the series. As part of the CES announcements, the ReadyNAS 520 series is expanding with 4- and 8-bay models. The ReadyNAS 620 series is getting a 8-bay model in addition to the existing 6-bay model. We will come back to the ReadyNAS 520 and 620 series later on in this piece.

The major new product announcement in the ReadyNAS lineup is the ReadyNAS 420 series, which comes in 2-bay (RN 422) and 4-bay (RN 424) variants. Both are based on the dual-core Intel Atom C3338 SoC. Based on the Goldmont Atom micro-architecture, Denverton shows that Intel is committed to a cost-effective server solution based on the Intel Atom platform, while retaining Xeon D and Pentium D for solutions offering better performance at a premium.

Note that the ReadyNAS 420 series comes with only Gigabit LAN ports, while the 520 and 620 series are equipped with 10GBASE-T ports. The specifications of the new members in the 520 and 620 series are provided below.

An interesting aspect is the Bluetooth dongle, which allows IT administrators to quickly check up on the status of the NAS unit from a mobile device.

Similar to the current ReadyNAS units, the new ones also deliver the advantages resulting from Netgear’s adaptation of the btrfs file system along with a mdadm RAID management layer. Various backup and remote access strategies are supported with the ReadyDR and ReadyCLOUD packages. Despite the major focus on gearing up ReadyNAS solutions towards business use-cases, there is also support for prosumers interested in multimedia streaming – the ReadyNAS 620 series supports streaming and real-time transcoding of multiple 4K streams, while the 520 series supports streaming and real-time transcoding for multiple 1080p or a single 4K stream (based on the CPU capabilities).

The current pricing of the various ReadyNAS models are specificed in the table below.

Netgear ReadyNAS Pricing Table [ Q1 2017 ]
Model MSRP
ReadyNAS 420 Series  
RN 422 USD 450
RN 424 USD 650
   
ReadyNAS 520 Series  
RN 524X USD 900
RN 526X USD 1200
RN 528X USD 1600
   
ReadyNAS 620 Series  
RN 626X USD 1700
RN 628X USD 2000

The RN 528X and RN 628X are available immediately, while the other new models (RN 524X, RN 422 and RN 424) are slated to become available later this quarter.

All models are backed up by a 5-year warranty, with multiple support options available (including next business-day parts replacement) – something attractive to IT administrators. In summary, Netgear has taken the lead in introducing commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) NAS units based on the latest hardware platforms from Intel. The OS features and allied packages are very attractive to business users, despite other NAS vendors providing a OS with more features for prosumers.

Netgear Expands ReadyNAS Lineup with Intel Denverton Atom Platform
  • Comments are Closed

Netgear Expands ReadyNAS Lineup with Intel Denverton Atom Platform

Netgear’s CES 2017 announcements include a trio of updates to their ReadyNAS network-attached storage lineup. Back in September 2016, Netgear announced one of the first NAS lineups based on Intel’s Broadwell DE (Xeon D / Pentium D) platform. While the ReadyNAS 520 series used the dual-core Intel Pentium D-1508 SoC, the ReadyNAS 620 series used the quad-core Xeon D-1521 SoC. At the time of introduction, only 6-bay models were available in both the series. As part of the CES announcements, the ReadyNAS 520 series is expanding with 4- and 8-bay models. The ReadyNAS 620 series is getting a 8-bay model in addition to the existing 6-bay model. We will come back to the ReadyNAS 520 and 620 series later on in this piece.

The major new product announcement in the ReadyNAS lineup is the ReadyNAS 420 series, which comes in 2-bay (RN 422) and 4-bay (RN 424) variants. Both are based on the dual-core Intel Atom C3338 SoC. Based on the Goldmont Atom micro-architecture, Denverton shows that Intel is committed to a cost-effective server solution based on the Intel Atom platform, while retaining Xeon D and Pentium D for solutions offering better performance at a premium.

Note that the ReadyNAS 420 series comes with only Gigabit LAN ports, while the 520 and 620 series are equipped with 10GBASE-T ports. The specifications of the new members in the 520 and 620 series are provided below.

An interesting aspect is the Bluetooth dongle, which allows IT administrators to quickly check up on the status of the NAS unit from a mobile device.

Similar to the current ReadyNAS units, the new ones also deliver the advantages resulting from Netgear’s adaptation of the btrfs file system along with a mdadm RAID management layer. Various backup and remote access strategies are supported with the ReadyDR and ReadyCLOUD packages. Despite the major focus on gearing up ReadyNAS solutions towards business use-cases, there is also support for prosumers interested in multimedia streaming – the ReadyNAS 620 series supports streaming and real-time transcoding of multiple 4K streams, while the 520 series supports streaming and real-time transcoding for multiple 1080p or a single 4K stream (based on the CPU capabilities).

The current pricing of the various ReadyNAS models are specificed in the table below.

Netgear ReadyNAS Pricing Table [ Q1 2017 ]
Model MSRP
ReadyNAS 420 Series  
RN 422 USD 450
RN 424 USD 650
   
ReadyNAS 520 Series  
RN 524X USD 900
RN 526X USD 1200
RN 528X USD 1600
   
ReadyNAS 620 Series  
RN 626X USD 1700
RN 628X USD 2000

The RN 528X and RN 628X are available immediately, while the other new models (RN 524X, RN 422 and RN 424) are slated to become available later this quarter.

All models are backed up by a 5-year warranty, with multiple support options available (including next business-day parts replacement) – something attractive to IT administrators. In summary, Netgear has taken the lead in introducing commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) NAS units based on the latest hardware platforms from Intel. The OS features and allied packages are very attractive to business users, despite other NAS vendors providing a OS with more features for prosumers.

Netgear Expands ReadyNAS Lineup with Intel Denverton Atom Platform
  • Comments are Closed

Netgear Expands ReadyNAS Lineup with Intel Denverton Atom Platform

Netgear’s CES 2017 announcements include a trio of updates to their ReadyNAS network-attached storage lineup. Back in September 2016, Netgear announced one of the first NAS lineups based on Intel’s Broadwell DE (Xeon D / Pentium D) platform. While the ReadyNAS 520 series used the dual-core Intel Pentium D-1508 SoC, the ReadyNAS 620 series used the quad-core Xeon D-1521 SoC. At the time of introduction, only 6-bay models were available in both the series. As part of the CES announcements, the ReadyNAS 520 series is expanding with 4- and 8-bay models. The ReadyNAS 620 series is getting a 8-bay model in addition to the existing 6-bay model. We will come back to the ReadyNAS 520 and 620 series later on in this piece.

The major new product announcement in the ReadyNAS lineup is the ReadyNAS 420 series, which comes in 2-bay (RN 422) and 4-bay (RN 424) variants. Both are based on the dual-core Intel Atom C3338 SoC. Based on the Goldmont Atom micro-architecture, Denverton shows that Intel is committed to a cost-effective server solution based on the Intel Atom platform, while retaining Xeon D and Pentium D for solutions offering better performance at a premium.

Note that the ReadyNAS 420 series comes with only Gigabit LAN ports, while the 520 and 620 series are equipped with 10GBASE-T ports. The specifications of the new members in the 520 and 620 series are provided below.

An interesting aspect is the Bluetooth dongle, which allows IT administrators to quickly check up on the status of the NAS unit from a mobile device.

Similar to the current ReadyNAS units, the new ones also deliver the advantages resulting from Netgear’s adaptation of the btrfs file system along with a mdadm RAID management layer. Various backup and remote access strategies are supported with the ReadyDR and ReadyCLOUD packages. Despite the major focus on gearing up ReadyNAS solutions towards business use-cases, there is also support for prosumers interested in multimedia streaming – the ReadyNAS 620 series supports streaming and real-time transcoding of multiple 4K streams, while the 520 series supports streaming and real-time transcoding for multiple 1080p or a single 4K stream (based on the CPU capabilities).

The current pricing of the various ReadyNAS models are specificed in the table below.

Netgear ReadyNAS Pricing Table [ Q1 2017 ]
Model MSRP
ReadyNAS 420 Series  
RN 422 USD 450
RN 424 USD 650
   
ReadyNAS 520 Series  
RN 524X USD 900
RN 526X USD 1200
RN 528X USD 1600
   
ReadyNAS 620 Series  
RN 626X USD 1700
RN 628X USD 2000

The RN 528X and RN 628X are available immediately, while the other new models (RN 524X, RN 422 and RN 424) are slated to become available later this quarter.

All models are backed up by a 5-year warranty, with multiple support options available (including next business-day parts replacement) – something attractive to IT administrators. In summary, Netgear has taken the lead in introducing commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) NAS units based on the latest hardware platforms from Intel. The OS features and allied packages are very attractive to business users, despite other NAS vendors providing a OS with more features for prosumers.