PXI Express Data Streaming Systems
NI 8262, NI HDD-8263, NI HDD-8264
• NI 8262 x4 cabled PCI Express module
for PXI Express
• HDD-8264 external RAID enclosure
• Twelve 250 GB 3.5 in. SATA II
hard drives
• 3 TB total storage
• 600 MB/s reading and writing
(sustainable for 2 TB)
• 2U height in a 19 in. rack
• HDD-8263 external RAID enclosure
• Four 250 GB 3.5 in. SATA II
hard drives
• 1 TB total storage
• 200 MB/s reading and writing
(sustainable for 800 GB)
• 1U height in a 19 in. rack
• Complete rack-mount kit included
• Universal AC power supply
Operating Systems
• Windows Vista/XP
Overview
The NI 8262 is a x4 cabled PCI Express module for use in PXI Express
systems. The NI HDD-8264 is a 2U 12-drive external hard drive
enclosure with 3 TB of capacity, and the NI HDD-8263 is a
1U four-drive external hard drive enclosure with 1 TB of SATA hard drive
capacity. Both enclosures include a hardware RAID controller and x4
cabled PCI Express link. You can cable the NI 8262 module to either
enclosure for high-speed, long-duration recording and playback with
PXI Express.
logical drive letters. You can then access them as standard hard drives in
Windows and programmatically access them using standard file I/O
application programming interfaces (APIs) in development environments.
Streaming Performance
RAID 0 provides the highest standard RAID performance for streaming
data to and from disk because data is evenly distributed among all of the
hard drives in the array. However, the streaming performance of a hard
drive array is not consistent across the entire storage capacity because
hard drive streaming performance is highest at the outer rim of the
drives and decreases as the drive heads approach the inner rims. Thus,
using standard RAID configurations, the same level of streaming
performance is not possible across the entire RAID volume. The
HDD-8264, configured as RAID 0, can sustain reading and writing at
600 MB/s for 2 TB. The HDD-8263, configured as RAID 0, can sustain
reading and writing at 200 MB/s for 800 GB.
Hardware
PXI Express data streaming systems consist of an NI 8262 module in a
PXI Express peripheral slot of a PXI Express chassis cabled, via a x4
cabled PCI Express cable, to either an HDD-8264 or HDD-8263 external
hard drive enclosure. Each enclosure includes a hardware RAID controller
and a set of 250 GB SATA II hard drives. The RAID 0 configuration, or
striping without parity, provides the highest performance for streaming
data to and from disk as it distributes data evenly across a set of hard
drives. The HDD-8264 includes twelve 250 GB 3.5 in. SATA II hard drives,
and the HDD-8263 includes four 250 GB 3.5 in. SATA II hard drives.
Theory of Operation
After installing the provided driver software, you can configure the
HDD-8264 and HDD-8263 hard drives in various RAID configurations and
volumes during system boot. The HDD-8264, because of the 2 TB logical
drive limitation of 32-bit operating systems, is delivered as two RAID 0
volumes of 2 TB and 1 TB, and the HDD-8263 is delivered as a single
RAID 0 volume of 1 TB. In Windows, you can assign these volumes
An NI 8262 Module Cabeled to an HDD-8263 External RAID Enclosure
NI [ NATIONAL INSTRUMENTS CORPORATION ]
