Based on the new storage platform from Intel

Mar 5, 2010 09:51 GMT  ·  By
QNAP launches new TurboNAS devices based on the latest Atom platform
5 photos
   QNAP launches new TurboNAS devices based on the latest Atom platform

Seeing the growing popularity of network-attached storage devices, Intel has decided to update its low-power Atom platform and optimize it for use in such installments. NAS units are generally used by home and small office networks as central storage hubs and, as such, they need good streaming and data-transfer rates, as well as low power usage and storage expandability. Intel promises that its new D410 and D510 chips, along with the 82801IR I/O Controller will achieve these goals. With LG having already showcased a pair of devices powered by this new technology, QNAP has joined the fray with two TurboNAS products of its own.

Like its rival LG, the company took advantage of the CeBIT expo in Hanover, Germany and put two products on display. With the number of drive bays being, essentially, the main difference between the two, QNAP's units promise a better performance, a higher storage expandability and a larger feature set compared with previous-generation NAS devices.

One of them, the TS-659, has six bays, whereas the other (TS-859) has no less than eight. All bays are hot-swappable and can house 3.5-inch or 2.5-inch storage devices, whether hard drives or solid state drives, and, thus, enable maximum capacities of 12TB and 16TB, respectively.

As for the actual specifications, the two run on the Intel Atom D512 dual-core at 1.66GHz, have 1GB DDR2 RAM and 512MB of flash memory (DOM). They also each boast two Gigabit RJ-45 Ethernet ports, five USB ports, two eSATA connectors, VGA output and run the embedded Linux operating system. Of course, in addition to this OS, the QNAP products also support Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows Server 2003/2008, Apple's Mac OS X and Unix.

The feature set of the two devices includes the 256-bit AES encryption, IP filter, RAID 0, 1, 5, 6 and JBOD support, Wake on LAN, and a K-Lock Security Slot for theft prevention. As for backup, USB One Touch Copy Backup (Import/Export) and Apple's Time Machine are supported.

Unfortunately, as it is the case with LG's products, the price and availability of the two QNAP NAS units are unknown.

Live report by Traian Teglet from CeBIT 2010 in Hanover, Germany.

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QNAP launches new TurboNAS devices based on the latest Atom platform
QNAP launches new TurboNAS devices based on the latest Atom platformQNAP launches new TurboNAS devices based on the latest Atom platform
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