14 DAY TRIAL // The latest Intel Atom central processing units were very well received on the netbook front, where their significant energy efficiency with no impact on performance allowed them to be quickly adopted by many PC makers. Now that the home and small office storage markets are also growing, Intel decided to optimize its processors for these areas as well. The chip giant has just announced that it has created a storage platform made up of its Atom D410 single-core and the dual-core D510, as well as the Intel 82801IR I/O Controller.
The new platform promises a power reduction and performance improvement of up to 50% compared with the previous generation of Intel Atom processors. Among the features are six PCI Express lanes, 12 USB 2.0 ports, eSATA connectivity and a port multiplier function. OEMs will be able to expand the storage capacity outside the box by adding peripheral devices. In addition, the platform boasts plug-and-play capabilities and an integrated Gigabit Ethernet MAC controller. This controller improves data rates to and from the home server or a small office NAS device.
“NAS systems have traditionally been found in businesses to manage, store and access data,” Seth Bobroff, general manager, Intel Data Center Group, Storage, said. “Today, households and small offices have an ever-increasing number of computers, laptops, netbooks and mobile phones that create and consume digital content. This advancement in mobility coupled with the explosive growth of data and media are creating the need for centralized, easy-to-use network storage solutions for the home and small office.”
Among the storage-solution developers that are already planning on developing devices based on the new Atom platform are LaCie, Synology, Thecus, LG Electronics and QNAP. Finally, in addition to improved performance and lower power consumption, the platform will support not only Microsoft Windows Home Server, but also the Linux open source operating system.
“The introduction of Intel’s Atom processor is a critical advancement that will dramatically change the scale of storage solutions across LaCie’s target markets,” Erwan Girard, professional business unit manager, LaCie, added. “We are excited to work with Intel and leverage this game-changing technology to offer a new level of powerful and robust features to our customers.”
“As multimedia libraries grow, so does the need for secure, redundant storage,” Dong-Keun Lee, vice president, DS Division, LG Electronics, shared. “Network-attached storage has become more than just a fancy disk drive. It is now a secure, redundant vault for your irreplaceable photos, songs and documents. With the innovative, fast data processing features of N4B2, we are emerging as a leader in this segment.”