Information Today
            Volume 16, Number 6 • June 1999		 Alcita Technologies Unveils IDEplex for CD-ROM and DVD-ROM Integration

Alcita Technologies has announced the availability of IDEplex, an IDE-to-SCSI converter that allows the integration of seven or eight IDE CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drives into tower or rack configurations. The converter, a small electronic circuit board containing a high-powered RISC processor and other sophisticated components, enables inexpensive, higher-performance ATAPI drives to be substituted for their higher-priced SCSI counterparts. According to the company, several key features of IDEplex allow OEM and integration customers to deliver a solution using the best of both SCSI and IDE technologies, providing higher performance and greater reliability through fault tolerance.

According to the announcement, an embedded Intel i960 processor and an Ultra SCSI interface on the IDEplex allows attached drives to transfer data at their full speed—up to twice that of standard SCSI subsystems. “IDEplex delivers a higher level of functionality and performance than standard SCSI tower products at a competitive cost,” said Geoff Legat, Alcita Technologies’ president and CEO. “The current implementation of IDEplex is the basis for several new data storage integration products. Increased functionality, rewritable support, and hard-disk caching will be added in future releases later this year.”

IDEplex, a full-featured SCSI LUN (Logical Unit Number) expander, transparently converts SCSI commands to their IDE equivalents. Connected to a host computer’s SCSI bus, an IDEplex tower acts as a single SCSI device, and each of the seven or eight attached devices can be addressed as a LUN. Multiple CD-ROM or DVD-ROM configurations can be built using IDEplex. An IDEplex-powered tower can be attached to any SCSI bus that has at least one SCSI Target ID free. Any host system that allows the use of LUNs (such as Macintosh, PC, or UNIX workstations) is capable of supporting the IDEplex. These features offer a cost savings to end users and simplify many installations. Virtually all read-only ATAPI drives and SCSI host adapters are supported.

According to the announcement, the eight-device version includes SureSwap, which provides the ultimate in fault tolerance for CD systems. This hotswap capability, a design feature that allows a drive to be removed or replaced without requiring the host to be powered down, and an available backplane kit facilitate the economical construction of hotswap towers. When a drive develops a fault it will not affect system operation beyond its own IDE bus.

IDEplex’s versatility allows customization of behavior to meet even the most diverse customer requirements, the company claims. A number of special options—such as alphanumeric display panels, control keypads for setting SCSI IDs, and termination and wide SCSI connectors—can be added to firmware and hardware. Two models of IDEplex are currently available. Customers can integrate support for a seven-high tower of CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drives with prices starting at $210. An eight-high tower is also available; it includes additional support for SureSwap, beginning at $300.

Source: Alcita Technologies, Inc., Woburn, MA, 781/376-0000; Fax: 781/376-0010; http://www.alcita.com.

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