The are marketed as more scalable, faster and higher performing arrays than Sun's previous models with up to 32GB cache, 16 4Gbit/sec. Fibre Channel or 1Gbit/sec. iSCSI ports and up to 448 Fibre Channel or serial ATA drives.

"The 6780 is our new flagship array in the midrange," said Nancy Hart, group manager for primary arrays at Sun. "The 6780 has more cache, more ports, more performance and more scalability than our previous models."

Sun also added RAID 6, or protection from dual disk failure, to its new midrange line. The arrays also come with Common Array Manager software, which allow administrators to manage any Sun storage system from one console.

"These arrays will help enterprise customers scale by reusing their existing assets," said Jason Schasser, senior director of Sun's storage products.

The Sun Storage 6580 Array can scale up to 256 disks or 256TB, and has eight 4Gb FC host ports, and 8GB cache, along with 16 expansion trays per controller, which allows users to intermix SATA and Fibre Channel drives.