Sun Microsystems Inc. today unveiled a new low-end to its Sun Storage 7000 series of Unified Storage arrays. The new Sun Storage 7310 array allows solid state disk (SSD) drives and hard disk drives to be used in the same chassis and under the same management interface.

The Sun Storage 7310 array includes the ability to cluster high availability applications. The array also uses Sun's Hybrid Storage Pool technology, which allows users to add up to 600GB of SSD storage to the existing 64GB of D RAM cache. In a two-node clustered configuration, the storage system offers up to 124GB of DRAM cache.

"The new Sun Storage 7310 expands the line and opens up a door for entry-level enterprises to experience the power and economic benefits of Unified Storage," John Fowler, executive vice-president of systems at Sun said in a statement.

The 7310 also comes with DTrace Analytics software, which adds systems analytics capabilities to the entire Sun Storage 7000 family of arrays.

The array, which is priced from $US40,165, scales from 12TB to 96TB of capacity and comes with four gigabit Ethernet ports per controller as well as an optional 10Gbit/sec Ethernet port. A single controller on the array offers two PCI slots for additional network or tape-backup.