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Eagle 900™
Midrange AMOS™
Server Users
New Alpha Micro Disk Cache Software
Provides Dramatic Performance Gains
Faster CPU and Motherboard
It goes
without saying that the Eagle 900 is built around an improved CPU,
the 64-bit, 3.0 Ghz., three-core AMD Athlon II® X3 440 processor, on
an integrated Socket AM3 motherboard.
SATA 3.0 Disk Interface
The disk interface channel is a key controlling
factor of system performance. The Eagle 900 includes the latest and
fastest iteration of the SATA interface, SATA 3.0, which offers
throughput of 6 Gbits/sec. This is double the 3 Gbits/sec.
throughput of the previous SATA 2.
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SATA 6.0 Gbit/sec. Disk Drive – Quadruple
the Capacity
The Eagle 900
includes a SATA 3.0 hard disk drive, providing a major jump in disk
performance. The disk drive, with a capacity of 640 GB – four times the
capacity of the drive in the Eagle 800 Series III, is currently the
fastest SATA hard drive on the market.
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Faster RAM – Double The Amount
The Eagle 900 employs
DDR3-1333 RAM, which offers 1.667 times the transfer rate of the
DDR2-800 memory used on the Eagle 800 Series III, and four times
the speed of the DDR-333 memory used in the Eagle 800 Series I.
RAM speed is actually improving at a faster rate than raw CPU clock
speed nowadays and is one of the main reasons modern systems perform so
much faster than their predecessors. Perhaps most notably, because
cached disk I/O is actually performed to and from RAM, the faster the
RAM, the faster the disk performance.
The Eagle 900 includes 2
GB of RAM, double the amount provided on Eagle 800 systems. On the Eagle
900, the RAM is provided in the form of two 1 GB DIMMs, as the
motherboard provides higher performance when two DIMMs are used.
A Faster, More Capable Multi-Function I/O
Board
Integrated circuit
technology continues to evolve at an amazing pace. The AM-900
incorporates a new generation I/O and SSD card for AMOS, which is built
around a new, fast programmable I/O controller chip.
SSD chip performance has
been dramatically improved: Applications which call the SSD frequently,
such as BASCPP compiles in Metropolis™, will run substantially faster as
a result.
Four “Alpha Micro style”
serial ports are built onto the AM-113-24, with a new twist: Each
serial port is accessible by Windows as well as by AMOS!
Two
forms of PCI slots have evolved: a 5-volt and a 3.3-volt variant.
Motherboard manufacturers don’t always tell you which version they use.
Two forms of PCI slots have evolved: a 5-volt and a
3.3-volt variant. Motherboard manufacturers don’t always tell you which
version they use. The Eagle 900’s AM-113-24 will work in either type of
PCI slot, providing more flexibility as motherboards debut and are
discontinued.
Microsoft Windows Embedded Standard 7®
In keeping
with Alpha Micro’s tradition of providing virus and malware-resistant
server computers, Alpha Micro is building the Eagle 900 on top of the
latest version of Microsoft’s Embedded Operating System: Windows
Embedded Standard 7®. For convenience, we will abbreviate this product’s
name to WES7. Like XP Embedded before it, WES7 allows Alpha Micro to
build a base OS with just enough functionality to meet the needs of
AMOS, but not enough to invite corruption from external sources.
Improved Cohabitation in Windows
Environments
Alpha Micro’s build of
Windows Embedded Standard 7 provides some improvements that have been
requested over the years:
A)
Ability to join a Domain: Now it will be easier to share files and
printers on a Windows network. This will also permit you to access files
on network drives directly from your AMOS programs.
B)
Improved Windows multi-tasking: The combination of the Athlon II CPU’s
three cores and Windows 7’s improved scheduler means that your Eagle 900
can host specialized applications in addition to AMOS, without fear that
those apps will slow down AMOS. Example: The Delegate TCP/IP proxy
software is gaining popularity among AMOS users, but it has until now
been a resource hog. Now it will be feasible to host Delegate on an
Eagle 900.
C)
Anti-Virus / Anti-Spyware software included: While AMOS itself remains
immune to viruses and worms, ever more clever ways of bringing down
systems are making their way onto networks. Microsoft Security
Essentials® is included in our WES7 builds as a security precaution. The
extra cores on the Athlon II CPU provide the horsepower to drive this
software without affecting AMOS performance.
An Entirely New Disk Caching Approach:
The Archimedes Cache
After extensive
development and testing, we have been able to create a brand-new
approach to disk read caching. Deficiencies in the Windows disk cache
were identified, and the missing functions were created on the x86 side
of AMOS for maximal efficiency.
SATA RAID Available
The
AM-452S internal SATA RAID is the unit of choice for environments
requiring failsafe disk drive functionality. This RAID unit mounts
inside the Eagle 900 and has been updated to incorporate the new SATA
3.0 hard drives. Updated pricing on the AM-452S RAID is included in the
Reseller Supplement.
Failsafe Redundant Power Supply Available
An optional Redundant
Power Supply provides continuous uptime in the event of a failure of one
of the two power supply modules. This unit is an ideal complement to the
above RAID to ensure maximum system uptime. This option requires the
Eagle 900 large chassis option so the power supply can be mounted. And
of course Alpha Micro’s Automatic Reboot Box will work fine with the
Eagle 900.
Multiple Backup Alternatives and Improved
Windows Backup Software
The Eagle 900 supports
several backup alternatives: Blu-ray and removable hard drive. Both of
these technologies are accessible through AMOS commands and are detailed
below. We continue to offer ¼” Streaming Tape Drives as an alternative
and familiar form of backup. Please note that tape cartridge pricing has
been on the rise, to the point where a tape costs approximately the same
as a SATA hard drive/tray combination.
Acronis® True Image™
Backup is included standard with each Eagle 900, replacing the venerable
Norton Ghost® used in earlier systems. Like Ghost, Acronis provides
drive imaging and bootable backups for disaster recovery. In addition,
Acronis offers a variety of options for native Windows backups. You can
have your AMD files or even your entire Windows file system backed up
onto the hard drive or Blu-ray, manually or on a scheduled basis.
Choice of 4.7 GB DVD-RAM or 50 GB Blu-ray
Drives
Two base models of the
Eagle 900 are offered, one with a DVD-RAM drive and one with a higher
speed Blu-ray optical drive. A PIC for Alpha Micro’s MAKBD backup
software is also included, along with a PIC for the previous MAKDVD
software for backwards compatibility and data restoral.
The new generation Blu-ray drive offered for the Eagle
900 sports faster performance with multiple kinds of optical media
including DVD-RAM. Most significantly, it supports the new BD-RE DL
double layer rewritable discs. These discs offer 50 GB of
rewritable capacity, twice what previous Blu-ray drives could
support.
Optional Hot-Swappable, Removable SATA
Disk Drive for Backup
With the descending cost
of high-capacity hard disk drives, it has become possible to offer a
high speed backup alternative in the form of removable trays holding
SATA disk drives. Backup and restore operations run faster on SATA hard
drives than on tape, optical disc, or USB drives. As a result, you may
choose to include a SATA tray with a removable 640 GB backup disk drive.
Hot Swap software is
included to permit you to install and remove drives safely while the
system is up and running. A Hot Swap operation (drive installation or
removal) may be invoked from the AMOS command prompt as well as from an
icon on the Windows Embedded boot console screen.
Costs on streaming tape cartridges have increased substantially in
recent years. A hard drive backup solution that costs roughly the same
as a tape cartridge and offers comparable portability, yet provides much
faster backup and random-access file restoral, is simply compelling.
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