SGI has popped out a new low-end storage system that it bills as its "easiest-to-deploy" "plug-and-play" box to date.

Don't let the USB drive lingo fool you, SGI is in fact talking about a basic RAID array. The InfiniteStorage 220 plays to both the Fibre Channel and Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) networking camps and uses SAS and SATA disk drives. The box should handle data backup, disaster recovery and general file storage tasks well.

SGI sells two models of the sleek, black 220, which takes up 2U of rack space. Model "B" has dual controllers and supports two 4Gb Fibre Channel or three 3Gb SAS host connections. The single controller Model "E" supports four 4Gb Fibre Channel and six 3Gb SAS connections.

Customers can pick between 73GB 15K, 146GB 15K and 300GB 10K SAS drives or 500GB 7200 rpm SATA drives (Model "B" only). Each InfiniteStorage 220 starts out with two drives and can hold up to 12 drives. SGI will then support up to 36 more drives in additional systems, bringing the total capacity to 24TB with the large SATA units.

You can order the system now with shipments starting early next year. The box starts at $8,000. More information is available here. ®