Glyph GT 103 User Manual

GT 103™

Single-space, Three-bay FireWire hot-swap enclosure for
GT Key™ cartridges

Quick Guide

610014-1.03
Dec 7, 2006

©Glyph Technologies

Quick Guide

Blank Page

GT 103

Proprietary Notice and Disclaimer

Unless noted otherwise, this document and the information herein
disclosed are proprietary to Glyph Technologies, 227 Cherry St.
Ithaca, NY 14850 (“GLYPH”). Any person or entity to whom this
document is furnished or having possession thereof, by acceptance,
assumes custody thereof and agrees that the document is given in
confidence and will not be copied or reproduced in whole or in part,
nor used or revealed to any person in any manner except to meet the
purposes for which it was delivered. Additional rights and obligations
regarding this document and its contents may be defined by a separate
written agreement with GLYPH, and if so, such separate written
agreement shall be controlling.

The information in this document is subject to change without notice,
and should not be construed as a commitment by GLYPH. Although
GLYPH will make every effort to inform users of substantive errors,
GLYPH disclaims all liability for any loss or damage resulting from the
use of this manual or any software described herein, including without
limitation contingent, special, or incidental liability.

© 2002-2004 Glyph Technologies. All rights reserved. Specifications
are subject to change without notice. Glyph and the Glyph logo are
registered trademarks of Glyph Technologies. All other brands and
product names mentioned are trademarks of their respective holders.

ABOUT THIS DOCUMENT

This document is a brief introduction to Glyph’s GT 103, a
single-space, three-bay FireWire hot-swap enclosure for GT Key™
cartridges.

Quick Guide #610014-1.03 Proprietary Notice and Disclaimer
© Glyph Technologies – www.glyphtech.com

1

GT 103

DOCUMENT CONVENTIONS

Notes

Notes alert you to important information. They are indented and
preceded by the word Note in bold type.

Cautions

Cautions alert the user to actions or situations that can result in
damage to users or data. Cautions are accompanied by a triangle icon,
as in the example below.

C

AUTION:

If the container is damaged, file a report with the carrier or dealer
immediately.

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GT 103

CONTACTING GLYPH

Please use the following contact information to contact Glyph and its
distributors.

Glyph USA offers phone support Monday through Friday, 9:00 am to
6:00 pm Eastern Time.

Note: DO NOT ship any return goods to the mailing addresses below

unless you have a valid RMA number. All goods will be refused
delivery unless a valid RMA number is displayed on the outside of the
package.

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

Mailing Address Phone/Fax Email and Web Site

Glyph Technologies
227 Cherry St.
Ithaca, NY 14850

USA

Phone:
[phone]

Fax:
[phone]

General information:
[e-mail]

Sales enquiries:
[e-mail]

Technical support:
[e-mail]

www.glyphtech.com

Europe

Mailing Address Phone/Fax Email and Web Site

Steyler Str. 121
D - 41334 Nettetal
Germany

Quick Guide #610014-1.03 Proprietary Notice and Disclaimer
© Glyph Technologies – www.glyphtech.com

Phone: [phone]
/ 12 76 23

Fax : [phone] /
12 83 12

Sales enquires:
[e-mail]

Technical support:
[e-mail]

www.glyphtech.com

3

Contents of This Guide

Glyph’s GT Series, p. 4
About the GT 103, p. 7
Unpacking Your GT 103, p. 12
Installing the Hardware, p. 14
Preparing Your Drive for Use: Mac OS 9 Users, p. 15
Preparing Your Drive for Use: Mac OS X Users, p. 17
Preparing Your Drive for Use: Windows Users, p. 17
Care and Maintenance of the GT 103, p. 21
Troubleshooting, p. 24
GT 103 Specifications, p. 25
Audio Storage Guide, p. 26

Glyph’s GT Series

GT 103

The GT Series is a cross-functional line of FireWire-based storage
subsystems designed for mobility and easy expansion. GT Series
members include:

GT Key - A hot-swappable FireWire Drive

GT 050 - A Fixed-Mount FireWire Tabletop Drive

GT 051 - A Hot-Swappable FireWire Tabletop Drive

GT 103 - A One-space Thee-bay enclosure

GT 308 - A Three-space Eight-bay enclosure

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GT 103

The GT Series incorporates Glyph’s own advanced FireWire
technology called Integrity™. Inspired by the limitations of existing
hybrid ATA-to-FireWire hot-swap products, Glyph engineers resolved
the data integrity problems that arise from breaking at the ATA
interface by incorporating unique enhancements to existing FireWire
standards. As a result, the GT Key drive cartridge contains the
ATA-to-FireWire bridging technology in the cartridge itself. When
removing a hard drive from the receiver, the drive and its bridge
remain together to support hard drive hot-swapping in the proper
way—using circuits and protocols that are intended for hot-swap
applications. The GT Series sets new standards as Glyph’s Integrity™
technology surpasses today’s other hot-swappable storage.

Firewire is an implementation of the IEEE 1394 serial bus standard. It
not only supports automatic configuration ("plug and play") and
hot-swapping of devices, it’s fast, and best of all it’s reliable for
audio/video as well as for computer peripherals.

FireWire supports peripherals in a tree-like structure, as opposed to
SCSI's linear structure. It allows peer-to-peer device communication—
e.g. between a scanner and a printer—to take place, without using
system memory or the CPU.

With FireWire you don’t have to worry about IDs or device
termination; you can hook up to 63 devices to the same bus, with cable
lengths of up to 4.5 meters (14 feet) including internal cabling, allowed
between devices.

Its cable is not only more convenient than SCSI’s but can also carry
power. This allows low-consumption devices to operate without a
separate power cord, by using power supplied by other devices on the
bus.

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GT 103

Noise Control

Elimination of Signal noise

Components in GT Series enclosures are of the highest quality
possible. These include:

• Heavy-gauge internal power cabling to carry current with minimal loss

• Bridge circuit boards designed to provide extra functions and top
performance

• High-quality data cables to maintain signal integrity at high data
rates

We use Teflon ribbon cables in our GT Series FireWire solutions
because Teflon is the best insulator for minimizing cross-talk and
maintaining high-frequency signal integrity. Good insulation
maintains signal quality. Maintaining signal quality ensures maximum
data transfer rates.

Elimination of Acoustic Noise

GT Series enclosures and the GT Key incorporate QuietMetal™ to
support quiet recording by virtually eliminating noise caused by the
vibrations of hard drives and fans.

QuietMetal is a constrained-layer composite—a laminate formed of two
layers of metal sandwiching a viscoelastic polymer core. Vibration felt
by the metal layers is dampened by the softer center layer: the
deformation of the core facilitates the absorption of vibrational
energy. The combination of QuietMetal and secure fastening with
sturdy steel mounting hardware helps to ensure a still, quiet
environment for your recording sessions.

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GT 103

Power

Glyph uses efficient, high-quality power supplies, selected specifically
for the demands of production environments.

Our power supplies have a large amount of headroom, so your Glyph
system will function, for brief periods of time, with AC lines
significantly below specified limits.

Glyph FireWire devices, even when they’re not turned on, will pass
signal and bus power through to downstream FireWire devices.

Glyph’s FireWire solutions are 100% compliant with FireWire
specifications for reliable operation using FireWire’s repeater
functionality.

About the GT 103

The GT 103 is a single-space three-bay FireWire enclosure. It can be
configured with any combination of hot-swappable FireWire drive
capacities, and makes it easy to take drives between multiple
computers. The GT 103 accepts up to three GT Key hot-swap drive
cartridges.

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GT Key Hot-Swap Drive Cartridges

GT 103

Having designed and engineered our own ATA-to-FireWire bridge, we
decided to enclose the bridge and the drive in a single unit. The result
is the GT Key FireWire cartridge.

This integrated exchange system offers true hard drive hot-swap
technology, ensuring data integrity and consistency: removing a
hot-swap drive from a Glyph FireWire system interrupts the data signal
at the FireWire bus, not on the ATA bus as with other hot-swap
systems.

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