【NEC】 N3250/N3760 Disk Array Subsystem

NEC announced the N3250 / N3760 disk array subsystem in December 1994 along with the parallel ACOS PX7800 mainframe. By using large-volume, 3.5-inch disk drives and enclosing the N3760 disk array unit and the N3250 disk array processor in one cabinet, the N3250 / N3760 remained compact while offering 134.8 GB of storage space. NEC switched the disk input/output architecture from CKD to FBA and moved to an addressing scheme that was independent of the physical disk specifications. These moves eliminated the need to modify file size settings or the JCL when working with different types of disk units. The subsystem featured the high reliability of RAID-1 and RAID-3 redundant drive configurations.

Specifications of the N3250 disk array processor
Cache size [MB] 128 — 2048
Nonvolatile memory size [MB] Up to 64
Channel data transfer speeds [MB/s] 4.5 — 6
Directors 2,4
Max. number of logical spindles 32
Overall external dimensions [mm] 880 x 760 x 1,560 (w x d x h)

Specifications of the N3760 disk array unit
RAID formats RAID-1,RAID-3
Storage capacity per enclosure [GB] Up to 134.8
Storage capacity per unit [GB] 8.4/16.8
Storage capacity per logical spindle [GB] 2.1/4.2
Number of logical spindles 4
Average seek time [ms] 10
Average rotational latency [ms] 4.2
Data transfer speeds [MB/s] 6 — 10

  
N3250/N3760