Stardom has announced the US$499 DeckRAID DR4
(http://www.raidon-usa.com/stardom/deckraid_4_spec.html), a RAID 5
desktop storage solution designed with the iMac in mind (though, of
course, it can be used with any Mac). It sports quadruple interfaces
— FireWire 800, FireWire 400, USB 2.0 and eSATA — with port
multiplication.
The DeckRAID DR4 is hot-pluggable and is immediately recognized by
Mac OS X and Windows without software. When using the latest, high
capacity 2TB drives, the DR4 allows for up to 6TB of usable storage
in RAID 5 in a 4-bay form-factor that’s sleek in design.
The DR4 provides throughputs of up to 220 MB/second. In the event of
hard drive failure, the DeckRAID DR4 can automatically switch
operations to the remaining drives and alert the user via its
hardware system status indicator and built-in audio alarm. The
DeckRAID DR4 is capable of acting as a RAID 5 boot drive via FireWire
and USB 2.0 connection.
It provides complete fault-tolerance and is resistant to a single
drive failure. This bootable function enables a secondary boot drive
that can be used on another remote workstation if necessary.
The DeckRAID DR4 also provides a method for users to hot-swap drives
from the RAID array without shutting down the computer. To replace a
defective hard drive, the user simply pulls out the drive module and
inserts a new one.
