Recorder takes on huge bandwidth

The PowerMidas CP-MDR-620 data recorder uses a new dual-channel 2Gbit/s intelligent Fibre Channel adapter to deliver up to 240Mbyte/s sustained real-time recording and playback.

The CP-MDR-620 PowerMidas custom programmable Midas data recorder uses a new dual-channel 2Gbit/s intelligent Fibre Channel adapter capable of delivering up to 240Mbyte/s sustained real-time recording and playback in typical embedded applications such as radar, sonar, intelligence, and image capture.

The PowerMidas CP-MDR is aimed at data acquisition applications where one or more custom or COTS PMC, VME, and RACE++ modules can be used simultaneously for data input.

There is a VME single-slot version with one each PMC, VME, and optional RACE++ input port or a VME dual-slot version with three additional PMC input ports.

Under custom program control multiple input data streams can be tagged and merged before being sent to the CP-MDR transfer engine for recording to high-speed Fibre Channel storage devices.

The CP-MDR records data to either budget friendly Fibre Channel JBOD (just a bunch of disks) or RAID devices connected directly to the CP-MDR or located anywhere on a Fibre Channel storage area network (FC SAN).

An advanced disk group management function allows any set of disk or RAID devices on the FC SAN to be virtualised as a single storage device as seen from the CP-MDR application as well as from any MDR host.

Multiple disk groups can be created and managed at the same time and can be used in an alternating fashion, where some are used for recording while others are used simultaneously for MDR host read-back at full speed.

The PowerMidas CP-MDR uses an advanced data buffering system and the essential disk striping software to distribute the data across a disk group and dual Fibre Channel loops concurrently in order to achieve the high sustained data throughput.

The software automatically finds the optimal load balancing between the disk drives on each loop attain maximum speed and overcome the inherent limitations of a single 2Gbit/s Fibre Channel link to the storage system.

The built-in disk grouping and RAID-0 striping software in Vmetro's PowerMidas MDR products are completely transparent to the CP-MDR application software.

Vmetro also offers PowerMidas MDR host software that runs under Windows or Solaris for data upload direct from the FC SAN via Fibre Channel host bus adapter to the commercial workstation environment for analysis, archive, and/or signal processing algorithm development.

Data files can also be downloaded from the workstation to the FC SAN and the CP-MDR programmed to perform real-time data playback typically used to emulate sensor data flow into various signal processing system architectures or algorithms.

The CP-MDR-620 is Vmetro's latest addition to the PowerMidas MDR family of products with a performance range from 90 to 240Mbyte/s and prices that start at $14,900.

The new CP-MDR-620 will start shipping to customers in second quarter of 2003 and is available in both commercial and ruggedised versions.

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