Thecus Technology announced a Linux-based, seven-bay networked-attached storage (NAS) appliance. The N7700Pro runs on an Intel Core 2 Duo with up to 4GB of DDR2 800 memory, has dual gigabit Ethernet adapters plus a PCI Express x8 slot, and supports 14TB of storage, says the company.

A follow-on to the N7700, which was billed as the world's first seven-bay NAS device, the N7700Pro is touted by Thecus as being "the most powerful NAS unit available." A spokesperson confirmed that the appliance runs embedded Linux.

Previous Thecus NAS devices include the Thecus Yes Box N2100 (pictured at right). The two-slot device ran on a 600MHz, XScale Intel I/O processor (IOP), and was supported by Debian Linux.

Whereas the more recent N7700 NAS device was equipped with an Intel Celeron M clocked at 1.86GHz, the Pro version moves up to the Core 2 Duo. It also offers twice the memory, with 4GB of DDR2 800 SDRAM. Unlike the N700, the N7700Pro provides a dual Disk On Module (DOM) design in which a secondary DOM automatically reprograms the primary DOM in case of failure, says Thecus.

Thecus N7700Pro

The device's seven 3.5-inch SATA drive bays can accommodate up to 14TB of storage, says the company. The N7700Pro is said to support RAID 0, 1, 5, 6, 10, and JBOD, as well as online RAID expansion and migration. The N7700Pro is also said to be compatible with iSCSI initiators, and supports iSCSI thin provisioning. The devices are stackable, supporting up to five interlinked units that can be controlled by a master unit, says Thecus.

The N7700Pro offers two gigabit Ethernet adapters, either one of which can provide data transfer speeds of over 300MB/s, claims Thecus. The appliance also supplies a PCI Express x8 expansion slot, four USB 2.0 host ports (two of which are front-facing), and a RS232 port for a UPS device.

The N7700Pro (pictured at right) offers a 300 Watt power supply, and supports operating temperatures ranging from 41 to 104 deg. F (5 to 40 deg. C). An LCM display is said to offer system status and other information, and LED indicators are available for power, status, storage, WAN, LAN, and USB activity.

The device supports file-systems including Ext3, XFS and ZFS, and can connect to Windows, Mac, and Linux PCs, says Thecus. Software includes data backup software, as well as a web server, FTP server, printer server, iTunes server, photo web server, and a UPnP-compatible media server, says the company. Targeted at enterprise environments, the N7700PRO is said to be undergoing full VMware certification.

Stated Florence Shih, Thecus Technology GM, "Powered by Intel Core 2 Duo technology, the N7700Pro is one of the most powerful NAS devices in our arsenal."

Availability

Thecus did not provide pricing or availability information on the N7700Pro. More information on the product may be found here.

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