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Cereva Details Storage Switch

For months, Cereva Networks Inc. played its cards close to the vest, refusing to divulge much about its next-generation storage area networking (SAN) platform. The minimal info on record about the company came chiefly from its VCs (see Cereva ). Even the founder's identity was hidden.

Today, Cereva opened its doors in a company announcement that's as candid as the buildup's been secretive. We now know the company's founder is Raju C. Bopardikar, a TCP/IP and HIPPI expert with former ties to Bell Labs, IBM, and several semiconductor companies. And funding includes $110 million in financing and $20 million in credit from a range of sources, including those listed earlier in Light Reading, plus Sumitomo Corp..

In other ways, however, the suspense has deepened.

For one thing, Cereva's offering a new kind of box that needs to be proven. It also remains to be seen whether the product will offer the kind of connectivity that would give it a wide appeal among different types of carriers.

Dubbed the Internet Storage system, the product combines the following key elements:

  • Multiple server, disk management, and switching modules, each independently based on Power PC processors operating in parallel with other modules to avoid bottlenecks
  • A patent-pending, proprietary, real-time operating system with security functions and algorithms that dynamically manage stored data and files
  • Back-end disk storage with drives from IBM Corp. (NYSE: IBM) and Seagate Technology Inc. (NYSE: SEG) driven by proprietary FPGA (field programmable gate array) components and software
  • A nonblocking, 128-Gbit/s switch to interconnect all system elements
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