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Original Link: https://www.anandtech.com/show/6929/qnap-lauches-marvellbased-tsx20-x21-series-with-revamped-qts-40-os
QNAP Lauches Marvell-based TS-x20 / x21 Series with Revamped QTS 4.0 OS
by Ganesh T S on May 2, 2013 10:59 AM ESTQNAP's entry level NAS models received an upgrade recently with the launch of the TS-x20 and TS-x21 series. Both of therm are based on Marvell CPUs (and the lack of explicit mention of the SoC leads us to believe it is based on the Marvell 6282 which has been around for quite some time). While the x20 series uses a 1.6 GHz version with 512 MB of DDR3, the x21 uses a 2.0 GHz one with 1 GB of DDR3. As such, these models carry twice the amount of memory compared to the corresponding models from last year. The x20 and x21 series have 1,2 and 4 bay models (for a total of 6 new units). The 2 and 4-bay models have hot-swap bays. The TS-421 also has a LCD display in front while the TS-420 doesn't. The TS-120 and TS-220 come in white.
QNAP's NAS OS (TurboNAS firmware) needs a lot of catching up to do in order to compare favorably in terms of user experience, stability and usability with some of the other NAS vendors' offerings in the market. The most exciting part about the announcement of the new NAS models is the launch of a revamped NAS OS (QTS 4.0) available exclusively on the x20 / x21 series for now.
At first glance, the OS seems to be a hybrid version of the Asustor 'iOS' approach and Synology's desktop approach. It allows users to multi-task. Any change made to QNAP's OS with usability in mind is very welcome and we are cautiously excited about QTS 4.0.
In the meanwhile, for other NAS models, firmware version 3.8.3 is scheduled to go out in a week or two. QTS 4.0 beta for older NAS models is expected to be made available free of charge towards the end of May 2013. Business-oriented features such as storage pools and new LVM (logical volume manager) are slated to be added to QTS 4.0 in June. The next few months promise to be exciting for existing and prospective QNAP customers.
Source: QNAP