Instruction manual

8
Understanding
Disk Storage
Methods
The KONA 3 card, an Apple PCI-Express Power Mac, and Final Cut Pro, together
offer an unprecedented level of features and performance for audio/video post
production applications. However, to ensure performance and quality, the disk
storage system used with the Apple computer must be able to meet the demands of
the media.
For uncompressed SD, AJA recommends that at a minimum, the disk storage
system must be able to provide and maintain a consistent 50 MB/sec transfer rate
from the Apple computer to disk (read/write). There are a variety of system
configurations and peripherals that can provide this level of performance.
For uncompressed single link HD, AJA recommends that at a minimum, the disk
storage system must be able to provide and maintain a consistent 200 MB/sec
transfer rate from the Apple computer to disk (read/write). There are a variety of
system configurations and peripherals that can provide this level of performance.
For uncompressed dual link HD and 2K, AJA recommends that at a minimum, the
disk storage system must be able to provide and maintain in excess of 300 MB/sec
transfer rate from the Apple computer to disk (read/write). There are a variety of
system configurations and peripherals that can provide this level of performance.
KONA 3 users wishing to configure a storage for a system should also be aware that
raw benchmark numbers alone do not necessarily reflect the performance of a drive
solution. Other factors, such as drive seek time and controller cache can also affect
performance especially with regard to the bandwidth requirements of SD, HD, dual
link HD and 2K files.
About RAIDs
Redundant Array of Independent Disks, or RAID, is a group of hard drives that
appears to the host computer as a single high-speed storage unit. RAID systems
enable you to increase storage capacity and get the performance, reliability, and data
protection needed for video production, that would otherwise not be possible from
a single hard drive. Drives inside the RAID array operate simultaneously, increasing
overall throughput. RAID configurations can be comprised of:
• Striping data across multiple drives for storage performance (RAID 0).
•
Mirroring for redundancy (RAID 1).
•
Parity for data protection (such as RAID 5).
Most RAID configurations, or RAID levels, combine these to provide a balance of
protection and performance.
Internal Storage (SATA inside
Mac):
Best suited for compressed SD/HD formats only
External Storage:
Note: see Storage Methods
topic that follows later in this
Chapter
Ideally a RAID configuration with Fibre Channel or SCSI
connection to the Mac via qualified host bus adapter
Item Recommended