RACKMASTER® Systems, Inc. announces a powerful new 5U chassis.

Bloomington, MN - RACKMASTER Systems Inc., a privately held manufacturer of durable rack mount computer systems and peripheral enclosures for the Intelâ and Sunâ markets, today announced the release of its newly designed "5U FRS" (Fault Resilient Series) chassis. A fault tolerant enclosure designed specifically for the requirements of the computer telephony and networking arenas, the 5U FRS is being positioned to meet the demanding requirements of these marketplaces with power to spare. "The 5U FRS chassis is an improvement over other chassis on the market today" said Patrick Buhl, Rackmaster Systems’ CEO. "By utilizing a 5U chassis design, we have been able to provide a chassis that has increased drive bays, exceptional cooling properties, hot swap componentry and configuration flexibility".

The 5U FRS enclosure is unique in many ways and promises to be a real workhorse. The chassis comes standard with two redundant "hot swappable" 300W ATX power supplies. In the event of a failure of one of the power supplies, an audible alarm is triggered and the LED’s on the front of the enclosure give a clear visual status of which power supply has failed. The failed power supply can be easily removed and replaced through the front of the enclosure without taking the system down…a real plus for "mission critical systems". Power supply upgrade options are available to go to a dual 400W configuration or a quad 620W configuration. A quad 810W quad power factor corrected power supply with auto voltage select configuration is also available.

Cooling has always been an issue in chassis design. The 5U FRS provides three (3) 120mm, 90 CFM cooling fans for the chassis and two (2) dedicated 60mm 25CFM cooling fans, one for each power supply, to improve system air flow and durability. Once again, there is no need to take the system down to remove a failed chassis fan as the card cage fans are hot swappable and can be removed through the top cover without the use of any tools. The placement of the fans has been carefully designed to assure maximum airflow, which is drawn through the front of the enclosure and exhausted out the rear of the enclosure. Fan rotational speeds and internal chassis temperature are carefully monitored by the system and displayed on a LCD panel on the front of the enclosure as well as the chassis power supply subsystem status.

The 5U FRS is also unique in providing a level of expandability and flexibility that has not been available previously. On the front side of the chassis, there are four (4) half-height, vertical mount 5.25 " drive bays and one (1) vertical mount 3.5" drive bays. Additionally, there are options for two (2) or four (4) 3.5" horizontal drive bays in the rear of the chassis making it versatile enough for even the most demanding integrator. The chassis has a lockable front door covering the exposed drive bays, power supplies and the chassis status and control panel. With the Lexan window on the front door, the chassis status can be easily determined even with the door closed. When configured with "hot swappable" drive canisters, the device mounting options allow the user to add over 200GB of fault tolerant RAID storage per enclosure. And, with the addition of Rackmaster’s FRS SCSI Subsystem Chassis, multiple enclosures can be daisy-chained together to obtain additional on-line storage capacity.

Finally, the 5U FRS is designed with easy system integration and servicing in mind. The chassis is built with a removable ATX motherboard mount or backplane mount (up to 20 slots) at the rear of the chassis for quick, easy access. The fans and power supply modules are easily accessible and can be replaced in a matter of minutes. The 5U FRS is designed to provide an added level of value in the chassis that truly enhances the platform it is configured for.

Quality, durability, design flexibility, expandability, serviceability and ease of integration make the 5U FRS a real value starting at $1295.00. It is scheduled to begin shipping on October 23, 2000. Orders are now being accepted. Rackmaster also offers a line of chassis for the Sun AXiâ and AXmp motherboards. With Rackmaster focused on providing the marketplace with powerful, durable enclosures and fully configured rack mount computer systems, they are a natural choice as a rack mount chassis and systems supplier.

Rackmaster Systems, Inc. Shakopee, Minnesota designs and manufactures rackmount enclosures for applications ranging from telecommunications and network servers to process control. For additional information, contact Sales at (800) 480-4384 or (952) 233-9820 or online via a convenient Information Request Form.

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