Crystal Group Announces Newest Additions: RSS639 Rugged Storage System and Rugged Drivepacks (RDp) option.
Crystal Group Inc. Contact: Jakelyn Coon, Marketing Manager 800-378-1636 x281 email
	RSS639 Rugged Storage System	RS47F with Rugged Drivepack (RDp) Option

For Immediate Release
 
 Newest Additions: RSS639 and Rugged Drivepacks (RDp).PDF

Hiawatha, IA September 17th, 2009 Crystal Group Inc., a veteran-owned small business, designer and manufacturer of rugged, commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) custom-developed computers, displays, switches, and storage devices, is proud to announce the newest additions to the Crystal Group product family, the RSS639 JBOD Rugged 6U Storage System, and a new option to enhanced rugged 3U and 4U systems: Rugged Drivepacks (RDp).

In environments where performance, ruggedness, and reliability are imperative, the RSS639 is an ideal fit. This specialized system is designed for shipboard, airborne, and land-based applications.
The RSS639 offers 39 top-loading, hot-swappable 2.5"/3.5" SAS/SATA drives, up to 2TB per drive, 150QD Jonathan rails (allow locking out of rack), and an N+1 redundant AC power supply which allows the system to operate through 2 power module failures.

The RSS639 offers high bandwidth connectivity through two SAS x4 (SFF-8088) inputs with 12Gbps bandwidth each. The RSS639 system serves as a 78TB mass storage device that can be used in conjunction with an RS112 or RS255 RAID head unit. When paired with an RS series RAID head unit, the system can be operated in the following RAID modes: 50, 60, JBOD or multiple arrays of 1, 1E, 5, 5EE, 6 or 10. Multiple RSS639 storage systems can be attached to a single RS255 RAID head.

 "A pair of RSS639s attached to one (1) RS255 RAID head has demonstrated read speeds of 2.1 GB/s (16.8 Gbps) and write speeds of 2 GB/s (16 Gbps). This system truly showcases the performance and mass storage capacity that can be unleashed from the high bandwidth SAS architecture and high capacity enterprise-grade SATA hard drives", stated Jaden Ghylin, Crystal Group's Technical Director.

Crystal Group's new option for 3U and 4U Rugged Servers is the Rugged Drivepack (RDp). The new RDp option offers eight (8) hot-swappable 2.5" HDDs in one pack. Crystal Group's RS378 accepts up to three RDps and their RS47F has been enhanced to include six (6) drive packs -- allowing the user to pack up to 24 2.5" drives into a 3U and a whopping 48 2.5" drives into 4U of space. The RS47F can be outfitted with three (3) 16 port RAID cards allowing the system to read and write at over 3 GB/s to an array of 48 SSDs. "According to the acclaimed Tom's Hardware review site (http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/x25-e-ssd-performance, 2365.html), this performance level blows previously accepted performance standards out of the water," commented Crystal Group's Vice President of Engineering, Jim Shaw.

Crystal Group's Rugged Drivepacks allow the end user to pull 8 SSDs at a time, which makes transferring large amounts of data nearly instantaneous through "SneakerNet". This has been found to be a very valuable feature for mobile data collection systems that must be offloaded rapidly in order to be sent back out on new missions. The system can effectively offload nearly 10TB of data in under 2 minutes by removing and replacing the RDps. The RDp also allows the user to replace a single failed drive without removing the RDp from the system. This allows the replacement of drives in the field without upsetting the RAID array.

Ghylin also commented,"SSDs have always had a special place in the military market due to vibration, temperature, altitude tolerance, and overall reliability. However, there have been three things that have been holding them back from mass acceptance in the military market: performance, capacity, and cost. The Crystal RS47F with RDps solves all of these problems. A single RS47F with nearly 10TB of SSD Rugged Drivepacks has demonstrated read speeds of over 3 GB/s and write speeds of over 2.5 GB/s using commercially available SSDs. It is apparent from these results that Crystal is offering military customers a compelling way to create large storage arrays up to 10TB while taking advantage of the ruggedness, cost, and performance benefits of modern SSD technology".

As always, each Crystal product comes with a standard three-year warranty. On-site, next day and extended warranties are available. Configuration Management is also available upon request.

Crystal Group Inc. is uniquely postured as one company with three business competencies. As a server/systems manufacturer, systems integrator and custom design team, Crystal Group is well positioned to quickly and cost-effectively address all aspects of their customers’ projects. This three-tier approach is unique in the industry and allows Crystal Group to excel at the delivery of turn-key systems tailored to their customers’ specific needs. For more information please visit our website (www.crystalrugged.com ) or request that a Crystal Business Development Manager give you a call.

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About Crystal Group Inc.

Crystal Group Inc, a veteran-owned small business located in Hiawatha, Iowa, USA, designs and manufactures deployment-ready, rugged servers, switches, storage devices and displays that fit mission critical applications. For over 22 years Crystal Group has been developing rugged solutions for our customers' most challenging needs. Crystal excels at providing commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) and custom designed computer systems tailored to specification. All products are designed and built to meet and exceed MIL-STDs 810F, 167-1, 461E and MIL-S-901D.

All trademarks are properties of their respective owners. Design and specifications are subject to change. (C) 2009 Crystal Group Inc. All rights reserved.

More info on these products:

RSS639 Product Page

RSS639 Spec Sheet

Rugged 4U with Rugged Drivepacks (RDp)

Rugged 3U with Rugged Drivepacks (RDp)