You can learn more than you'll ever need to know about HyperTransport here (http://www.hypertransport.org/docs/tech/HTX_FAQ.pdf), but to quote Wernke: "It's a point-to-point communication, 2.4GB in a single direction, 4.8GBps total throughput."

"Our design allows us to read in parallel from all 48 disk drives, move that very quickly across the CPUs, and push it out to 20 NIC ports," adds Wernke, referencing a fully configured AIS 6000.

The speedy AIS 6000 starts at US$63,000 for a 12TB configuration. But the lower-end AIS 3000 model is no slowpoke, with a promised throughput of 500MBps, and you can get an expandable AIS3000 with 4TB capacity for just $25,000.

Has Agami hit the NAS jackpot by adopting AMD's processors instead of Intel's? I'll leave that thought hanging, because more juicy storage tidbits are awaiting me at the show.

Join me on The Storage Network (http://weblog.infoworld.com/thestoragenetwork)blog with questions or comments.