Dell Inc. and Microsoft Corp. announced yesterday a storage array that can serve up either file or block-based data and has software that supports features such as data snapshots and replication.

Designed for small and midsize businesses, the Dell PowerVault NX1950 comes loaded with Microsoft Windows Unified Data Storage Server 2003, offering file server and IP storage-area network (SAN) support based on the iSCSI protocol. The PowerVault NX1950 comes in single or two-node cluster configurations and includes a redundant back-end storage array -- the new Dell MD1000 -- scaling up to 45 serial-attached SCSI (SAS) drives and 13.5TB capacity. The MD1000 supports up to four host servers.

Microsoft obtained the iSCSI driver for the array

Shares in Unix company SCO have plummeted, following a judge's decision to uphold an earlier ruling to throw out the majority of the company's legal case against IBM.

SCO has been embroiled in a court battle with IBM for three years, since it claimed that IBM's contributions to Linux infringed its Unix code.

IBM succeeded in convincing a US court back in July that the scope of SCO's claims was too broad, causing two-thirds of its case to be dropped. SCO appealed, but the appeals judge on Wednesday upheld the decision. The judge stated that SCO had failed to produce any evidence to back up its intellectual property claims.

Now SCO's investors — many of whom bought into the company anticipating a large payout