CM-5 Scalable Disk Array

Introduction Hardware Description The CM -5 Scalable Disk AlTay is an extremely high The basic Disk Storage Node is a RISC microproces­ performance, highly expandable RAID disk storage sor-based controller with a CM-5 Network Interface, system that is completely integrated into the a large disk buffer, four advanced SCSI controllers, CM-5 parallel architecture. Capacity ranges from and eight hard disk drives. Additional custom hard­ 9 Gigabytes to 3.2 Terabytes, with sustained transfer ware is provided to augment the transfer of data rates of 12 Mbytes/s to 4.2 Gbytes/s. Data is stored directly between the disks, the buffer, and the CM-5 on individual Disk Storage Nodes that connect to Data Network. This Disk Storage Node provides up the same Data Network as the CM-5 Processing to 9.2 Gbytes of storage, a peak transfer rate of over Nodes. Both the capacity and the transfer rate of file 19 MBytes/s, and sustainable transfer rate of up to structures scale independently of the number of pro­ 12 MBytes/s. Hundreds of Nodes cessing nodes, resulting in a system that is uniquely can be accommodated within the Data Network of configurable both in terms of processing power and the CM-5. storage capability. Software Description With the introduction of the CM-5 disk array, The CM-5 "stripes" the data across all the Disk Thinking Machines Corporation continues its leader­ Storage Nodes in the system, so that each node ship in supercomputer disk technology. The Data­ contributes to the overall transfer rate available to Vault RAID storage system, introduced by Thinking the user. The software offers numerous options for Machines in 1988, established an industry first by establishing multiple file systems across the uniting large numbers of small disk units to achieve Scalable Disk Array. High availability is assured CM5 high performance and reliability in demanding by the inclusion of a flexible redundancy scheme. applications. Now Thinking Machines has taken Following a hardware failure, redundant data is this technology a step further by combining process­ used to regenerate the lost data during a read. ing nodes and disk storage nodes into a peer-to-peer relationship that is tunable and scalable across an Data stored on the Disk Storage Nodes is always extremely broad range of application requirements. available in serial order. The CM-5 provides a seamless mechanism for moving data between the The CM-5 disk array grows in performance and Disk Storage Nodes, partitions of processing nodes, capacity with the number of Disk Storage Nodes other CM-5 110 devices, other serial computers, and connected to the Data Network. Systems vary in size 110 devices connected to them. Special-purpose from a few nodes to several hundred, designed from hardware on the Disk Storage Node controller the ground up to offer very high performance, easy assists the operating system in handling data-order­ system maintenance, and high value. ing issues. This combination of hardware and soft­ ware support relieves the applications programmer from the burden of dealing with data ordering. Application programs access the file system through the standard UNIX interfaces with extensions to support large parallel transfers. The NFS proto­ col is implemented to allow external access to the disk array. (over) CM-5 Scalable Disk Array (continued)

Features • Disk Array Module • Preserves serial ordering of data sets - 3 Disk Storage Nodes - 1 Disk Array Module=1 equivalent 32 PN • File system can be read or written from different volume sized partitions - 1.2 Cbyte drives • Parallel and serial reads and writes can be - 22 data drives interspersed - 1 spare and 1 - 25 Cbyte capacity per module • UNIX compatible, NFS mountable - 33 Mbytes/s transfer rate sustained • Supports multiple file systems • Scalable Disk Array • Automatic on-line disk recovery - Consists of 1 to 384 Disk Storage Nodes - Scalable capacity: 9 Gigabytes to 3.2 Terabytes Specifications - Scalable transfer rate: 12 Mbytes/s to 4,224 • Disk Storage Node Mbytes/s sustained - RISC microprocessor-based Scalable • CM-5 Scalable File System (SFS) - Direct connection to the Data Network through - 64-bit UNIX File System a Network Interface (NI) - UNIX -compatible interface from applications written in CMF, C*, or CMMD Connection Machine, - 8 3.5", 1.2 Cbyte disk drives Thinking Machines, and - Functionality: RAID 3 C' are registered - 1 spare drive (optional) trademarks and CM-2, - 1 parity drive (optional) - Mountable via NFS CM-5, and DataVault are - Supports a flexible file system composed of a trademarks of Thinking - Up to 9.2 Cbytes storage capacity Machines Corporation. - Up to 12 Mbytes/s transfer rate sustained collection of blocks on a collection of disks SPARC is a registered - Each file system runs on 1 SPARC-based 110 trademark of SPARC International. UNIX is Control Processor a registered trademark of UNIX System Laboratories. Copyright © 1992 by Thinking Machines Corporation. All rights reserved.

Scalable Disk Array Configurations

• EPV=Equivalent32 PN volume