Maximum PC Gigabit Ethernet RSS Feed

Terabit Ethernet, Concepts Proven

Justin Kerr — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 11:44:15 -0600

Gigabit Ethernet may still outrun all but the most extreme SSD Raid configurations, but researchers can never rest on their laurels. Always hoping to invent the next big thing, scientists now have their sights set on Terabit Ethernet to help quell our insatiable hunger for bandwidth. A team from Australia, Denmark, and China has combined their efforts to demonstrate terabit-per-second speeds using fiber optic cables, laser light, and an unusual material named chalcogenide.

The group documented the results of its most recent trial in a white paper published in the February 16th 2009 issue of Optics Express. Though the technology is promising, Ben Eggleton, research director for CUDOS (Center for Ultrahigh bandwidth Devices for Optical Systems), points out the current limitations. “The problem isn't injecting that much high speed data into an optical strand, called multiplexing, but retrieving data at such high rates”. Conventional electronics are capable of injecting dozens of 10 Gbps streams, but trying to retrieve these streams any faster than 40 Gbps is beyond our current capabilities.

The breakthrough here however isn’t in the speed itself, but in proving the concept. Until the processing hardware catches up with our transmission capabilities, you won’t be finding this in routers anytime soon. Eggleton speculates that these concepts can be adapted to achieve slower and more manageable results, but the goal of this experiment was simply to prove that it was possible using fully photonic chips built using the same methods employed by current CMOS circuits. "It's years to complete," Eggleton said, taking these research efforts into a production technology. But these demonstrations "are starting to establish this is a serious proposition."

Drobo Adds Performance with New FireWire 800/USB 2.0 Version

Mark Edward Soper — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 18:44:51 -0500

The Drobo storage robot, which we tested in 2007, offers a fascinating combination of advanced data protection features, flexibility and support for SATA drives. Unfortunately, the original Drobo provides low throughput via its USB 2.0 connection. While its optional DroboShare accessory and forthcoming DroboApps application family enable it to operate as a storage device or a streaming media server on your Gigabit Ethernet network, better performance is what we'd like to see in either use.

Drobo, the Second Generation

Stung, perhaps, by our review's less-than-stellar 6 out of 10 score, Data Robotics is now rolling out a new version that features FireWire 800 (aka IEEE-1394b) ports as well as USB 2.0 ports. If you don't have a FireWire 800 port, the new Drobo has you covered. It includes bilingual ports that also run in FireWire 400 (IEEE-1394a) mode.

Making Drobo Faster

The new Drobo is designed to be faster, even if you use USB ports instead of FireWire ports. According to Data Robotics, "even if you’re now using USB 2.0, the new Drobo is up to three times as fast its predecessor in typical usage."

Give credit to a faster processor under the hood. Data Robotics says that the new Drobo is now fast enough for video editing.

Considering Drobo? Use Drobolator!

The Drobolator online capacity calculator will help you determine how many drives to install in a Drobo to reach your desired capacity (Drobo reserves some drive capacity for its RAID-like redundancy data protection features). For example, install three 500GB drives, and you'll have effective storage space of 929GB.

Bargain-Hunting for Drobo

The first-generation USB 2.0-only Drobos are now being cleared out at the Drobo Store, and you can buy either the new or the original Drobo in various 2TB and 4TB drive bundles.

With greater speed for USB 2.0 users and support for FireWire 800 ports, Drobo 2nd Generation looks like a sequel that could be better than the original.

Graphic courtesy Data Robotics.

Windows Home Server and Central Axis, Look Out: Drobo Broadens Network Media Server Category

Mark Edward Soper — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 13:23:24 -0500

Drobo 101: Flexible BYOD ("Bring Your Own Disks") Storage

Drobo combines the data-protection features of a RAID array, the storage pooling of JBOD ("just a bunch of disks"), and the ability to mix or match one to four SATA drives into a compact, USB 2.0 storage device that works with PCs, Linux boxes, or MacOS computers. See the data sheet (PDF format) here. Our tests found that the Drobo was quite slow compared to a standalone SATA drive in an enclosure. However, network storage is a different ballgame.

Drobo 202: Adding DroboShare

The DroboShare add-on enables you to connect one or two Drobos to your network via Gigabit Ethernet, and unlike some network storage devices, you can freely switch between local and network storage uses any time.

DroboShare + SDK = Network Media Server and Much More

There's a lot of interest in easy-to-use network media servers these days, as demonstrated by our stories on Windows Home Server and Maxtor Central Axis. Thanks to the release of the Drobo SDK, developers can now develop servers and other network apps for Drobo.

To demonstrate what's possible, the SDK includes a sample UPnP/DNLA server to provide streaming media to PS3, Xbox 360, and other compatible devices, a Linux version of the Drobo Dashboard control utility, and a Windows apps that displays the actual size of storage available in your Drobo configuration.

Joining the DroboApps Family

Data Robotics will launch a DroboApps website in the near future to feature applications from developers. So, if you're a developed excited about Drobo, get started by joining the developer community, which will enable you to download the Drobo SDK and sample apps.

Deals on Drobo

To get you started with Drobo, Data Robotics is currently offering special bundle prices on Drobo + 1TB Western Digital Green Power drives through its own DroboStore as well as major online vendors. Don't forget to grab a DroboShare as well if you want to put Drobo on the network.

Drobo Good? Drobo Bad? Feedback Wanted!

The comments section of the Endgadget story on Drobo's SDK features a vigorous discussion (translation: a knock-down, drag-out fight) about networking Drobo and alternatives. What say you? If you use Drobo and DroboShare, use an alternative, or have other useful comments, celebrate Independence Day by telling us exactly what you think.

Drobo+DroboShare image courtesy of Data Robotics.

Not Just Another Big Network Drive: Maxtor Prepares to Put 1TB of Media-Savvy Storage on Your Home Network

Mark Edward Soper — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 16:35:09 -0500

Entering a Crowded Marketplace...

SlashGear reports that Seagate has announced a new 1TB network attached drive, the Maxtor Central Axis network drive. Network attached drives aren't exactly new, of course.

Maxtor and Seagate already offer a number of network drives with similar capacities. Other vendors offering 1TB-class network storage include:

Western Digital (read our review of the My Book World Edition II dual-drive edition here)
Iomega
Buffalo Technology
Netgear
LaCie

The market is crowded, all right. So, what makes Maxtor's new network box so special?

...With More-than-PC Features

So, what makes this new product special? Features that recognize that today's home networks are not just a collection of PCs running Windows, but also include console games, media devices, and systems running MacOS. Central Axis is designed to meet the following needs:

Backup; includes automatic backup software for both Windows and MacOS clients
Remote access; supports secure remote access via web browser
Streaming media support; enables game consoles that support the DLNA (Digital Living Network Alliance) standard, such as the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, to display videos, pictures, and play music stored on the Central Axis; requires a UPnP AV 1.0 certified Digital Media Adapter for streaming media
Includes UPnP (universal Plug and Play) for easy configuration
Two additional USB ports (support print server and additional storage)
Password protected storage

Specifications

Hard disk

1TB, 7200RPM, 32MB cache

Network Connectivity

Gigabit Ethernet (10/100/1000)

Supports Web Interface for management

Firefox 2.x or later; IE 6.x or later

Operating systems

Windows XP, Vista - MacOS 10.4.11 or later

Warranty

5 years

The Target Is...

The Central Axis has more than just other network drives in its sights. With its support for automatic backup, it's a potential rival to Microsoft's Home Server, and with support for game consoles and MacOS as well as Windows clients, it's intending to sweep the 'best in show' for network drives.

Cha-ching!

The Central Axis will have a retail price at July introduction of $329.95, which is more than many of its competitors.

Think Gig! Time to Shop for Gigabit Ethernet Hardware

By Mark Soper — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 22:37:21 -0500

Although Wireless Ethernet adapters and routers are the SKU kings of your computer store's network hardware department, only the emerging 802.11n standard even gets close to matching the performance of Fast Ethernet (100Mbps). Meanwhile, led by NVIDIA and Intel chipsets, many motherboards and systems have now ramped up their onboard wired Ethernet support to Gigabit Ethernet, offering ten times the bandwidth at 1000Mbps and backwards compatibility with 10/100 Ethernet. If you're wanting to move video or other data really, really, fast, Gigabit Ethernet's the way to go.

Why Move to Gigabit? It's All About the Devices

Although Gigabit Ethernet is becoming standard on the desktop, Fast Ethernet, running at 1/10 the speed, is still the overwhelming choice for wireless routers' integrated Ethernet switches. And, as long as all you're doing is running a network to connect your PCs to the Internet, 100Mbps is fast enough. However, what if you could connect Gigabit Ethernet storage devices to your network? With fast access to storage from any PC, it's a powerful reason to make the move. And, now you have plenty of choices.

Gigabit Ethernet for Faster Network Storage

High-capacity network attached storage with features such as a USB print server, support for network discovery (Universal Plug and Play) for easy media sharing, bundled backup software, RAID support, and support for remote access via the Internet is a really good reason to look at making the move to end-to-end Gigabit Ethernet support.

Some of the network storage devices that include Gigabit Ethernet connections include:

- Western Digital's My Book World Edition (500 and 750GB) and World Edition II (1, 1.5 and 2TB) can be accessed remotely or locally without a PC host, and offer bundled EMC Retrospect Express backup software.

- LaCie Ethernet Big Disk provides capacity up to 2TB, while Ethernet Disk mini provides storage from 320-500GB with USB expansion options.

- Iomega StorCenter Wireless Network Storage combines 1TB storage with a USB print server, 802.11g wireless access, and EMC Retrospect Express backup; Iomega also offers a 500MB StorCenter Network Hard Disk without wireless support.

- Maxtor Solutions' Shared Storage II Dual puts 1TB of storage with RAID 1 mirroring and USB storage expansion on your network. Fusion offers a 500GB capacity, and Shared Storage II offers 320 or 500GB storage.

Have Your N and Gigabits Too

So, if you're ready to make the jump to Gigabit Ethernet, what routers can you choose from?

Some IEEE 802.11n routers, including some that have received Wi-Fi Certification, include Gigabit Ethernet support. Buffalo Wireless-N Nfiniti Dual Band Gigabit router, Linksys WRT330N, WRT350N and WRVS4400N, D-Link DIR-655 Xtreme N Gigabit Router, and Netgear RangeMax NEXT WNR854T are some of the first of a growing wave of Gigabit routers.Choose one of these, and you can boost the speed of your wired network immediately, keep using existing 802.11g clients, and be ready to add 802.11n wireless clients in the future.

Thumbnail image of Western Digital My Book World Edition II courtesy of Western Digital.