Lower-cost XP storage certified for 3000 use

HP has introduced a lower-cost version of its XP RAID storage line, and the new XP48 has been certified to work with HP e3000 systems. The HP Surestore Disk Array model starts at 72Gb configurations and scales up to 3.5 terabytes in a single cabinet. The XP512 model scales up to 37.5 terabytes. The 48 in the model number refers to the maximum number of drives in the unit, which holds both control hardware and drives in a single 28 x 31 x 70 inch cabinet.

The storage unit also uses a slower crossbar (passing 3.2 gigabits per second versus the 6.4 gigabits of the XP512). The lower number of drives in the XP48 unit gives it a slower speed as well, since it reduces the number of ACP disk pairs. The XP48 also has a smaller cache (16Gb, vs. 32Gb for the XP512) and a slightly smaller shared memory (1Gb vs. 1.28Gb).

HP said the XP48, which uses both the 18Gb and 73Gb drives from HP, is intended for datacenters requiring large amounts of high-availability storage connected to multiple heterogeneous servers: B2B e-commerce service providers; and Internet traffickers whose application needs span OLTP, data warehousing, ERP, disaster recovery and backup.