Adaptec Announces Low Cost, Low Risk ATA Controller Chip; Supports EDO DRAM and 160 Mbits/second Disk Transfer Rates.

MILPITAS, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 26, 1996--Adaptec, Inc. today announced the AIC-8380 disk drive controller chip, which provides a low cost, low risk solution for the next generation of high performance, high capacity ATA disk drives.

The AIC-8380 uses the existing firmware base of the AIC-8300 family, enabling disk drive manufacturers to bring drives to market faster, reducing cost and time-to-volume production requirements.

"We listened to our drive partners' demands for ATA controller chips that optimize performance, capacity and cost and also minimize development risk for new drives," said Mike Fisher, general manager and vice president of Adaptec's Mass Storage Electronics business unit. "The AIC-8380 meets those needs with a range of powerful features and an architecture familiar to our customers. Moving forward, our plans are to continue to lead the industry with evolutionary products for a host of mass storage devices."

The Market Demand for AIC-8380

PentiumPro systems and Windows 95 applications require high capacity disk drives which can quickly move large quantities of data. The small office, home office (SOHO) markets, where the PentiumPro/Windows 95 combination is prevalent, will not support the large price tags typically associated with this level of storage. The challenge to the disk drive manufacturer is to design a drive that meets the SOHO user's storage needs while staying within their storage budget.

With built-in support for EDO DRAMs, disk transfer rates up to 160 Mbits/second and an integrated frequency synthesizer, the AIC-8380 gives drive designers the tools they need to meet the market demand. EDO DRAMs increase buffer bandwidth to 64 MBytes/second, helping disk drive manufacturers provide higher performance drives.

With disk transfer rates up to 160 Mbits/second the AIC-8380 can be used with newer read channel devices to significantly increase drive capacity. This device also reduces system noise and system cost by integrating a frequency synthesizer, eliminating the need for an external high-frequency oscillator. Together, these features enable disk drive manufacturers to provide their customers with the higher performance, increased capacity drives they require, at an affordable cost.

Additional AIC-8380 Features

The AIC-8380 is compliant with ANSI standards for ATA/IDE drives. High speed multi-word DMA mode 2 and PIO mode 4 data transfers across the IDE bus at 16.67 MBytes/second. Additional data integrity is enhanced by the AIC-8380's defect FIFO technology, which provides quicker error management and simplifies error recovery routines. The AIC-8380's error logging capacity allows SMART technology to monitor both the long-term integrity of the media and the entire disk drive.

The AIC-8380's controller will interface directly with most of the popular microprocessors and DSPs used in disk drive applications without the need for additional circuitry. It can be easily integrated with Adaptec's AIC-4420 family of disk drive controllers.

The AIC-8380 is based on the AIC-8300 family architecture, supporting rapid time-to-market and lower development risk for drive manufacturers. Additionally, Adaptec offers a fully functional AT firmware code with the chip that can be customized to further shorten time to market.

About Adaptec

Adaptec provides bandwidth management technologies for organizations building the global information infrastructure. Its high-performance I/O, connectivity, and network products are incorporated into the systems and products of major computer and peripheral manufacturers. Founded in 1981 and headquartered in Milpitas, Calif., Adaptec (NASDAQ:ADPT) employs 2500 people worldwide in design, manufacturing, sales, service and distribution. Adaptec's home page is http://www.adaptec.com.

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