HyperTransport Consortium Announces Generic BIOS and Firmware Support For the HTX Connector.AMI Implements HTX HTX HyperTransport (high speed low latency chip to chip interlink) HTX Højere Teknisk Eksamen (Danish Technical College) HTX Hungarian Traded Index HTX Hemothorax HTX human tumor xenograft BIOS Extensions in AMIBIOS AMIBIOS American Megatrends, Incorporated, Basic Input/Output System [R]8 and Aptio[R] Platforms SUNNYVALE, Calif. -- Dramatically reducing the development time of systems and subsystems that use the popular HTX connector, the HyperTransport[TM] Technology Consortium today announced that American Megatrends American Megatrends Incorporated (AMI) is a Georgia, USA based hardware company that creates PC hardware and firmware. It was founded in 1985 by the current chairman and president, S. Shankar. Inc. (AMI) has incorporated generic BIOS and firmware support for HTX-enabled products into their BIOS platforms serving next-generation AMD (Advanced Micro Devices, Inc., Sunnyvale, CA, www.amd.com) A major manufacturer of semiconductor devices including x86-compatible CPUs, embedded processors, flash memories, programmable logic devices and networking chips. processors. AMI, a high-level member of the HyperTransport Consortium The HyperTransport Consortium is an industry consortium responsible for specifying and promoting the computer bus technology called HyperTransport. It is led by founding members Advanced Micro Devices, Alliance Semiconductor, Apple Computer, Broadcom Corporation, Cisco Systems, , has included the HTX BIOS extensions in its AMIBIOS[R]8 and Aptio[R] firmware, eliminating the need to develop custom BIOS solutions. "AMI is a recognized leader in the development of generic BIOS implementations," said Mario Cavalli, general manager of the HyperTransport Consortium. "Their decision to provide BIOS support for the HTX connector reinforces the considerable business value that HTX solutions bring to performance-driven applications. AMI's HTX BIOS support reduces product design time by several months and saves HTX product manufacturers hundreds of thousands of dollars in development costs. We believe that AMI's support will further accelerate the adoption of HTX-enabled solutions." HTX, a HyperTransport-based connector specification standardized by the HyperTransport Technology Consortium, allows system, motherboard and add-in card manufacturers to leverage the low latency Low latency allows human-unnoticeable delays between an input being processed and the corresponding output providing real time characteristics. This can be especially important for internet connections utilizing services such as online gaming and VOIP - VOIP is not as important as and high bandwidth of HyperTransport technology. The specification defines an 8- or 16-bit HyperTransport interface with a 1.6 gigatransfer/second data rate. As a result, the HTX slot connector standard provides an ideal, high-performance direct-connect path between system processor and board-level network interconnect, storage optimization and compute acceleration subsystems. "We've seen a growing adoption of generic HTX BIOS support from customers who want to take advantage of the performance benefits associated with HyperTransport technology," said S. Shankar, President and CEO (1) (Chief Executive Officer) The highest individual in command of an organization. Typically the president of the company, the CEO reports to the Chairman of the Board. of AMI. "That's why we've put extensive resources behind testing and validating the HTX BIOS extensions. The results of our close collaboration with the HyperTransport Consortium and its members will be dramatically reduced design complexity and accelerated time-to-market of HTX-based products for our high-profile system customers." About AMIBIOS8 and Aptio Leveraging modular code components that can be easily integrated into a project's source code, AMIBIOS8 eases design of server blades, telecommunication servers, industrial PCs, mobile PC electronics and web access devices. The BIOS features a smaller footprint, fast boot times, efficient power management features and support for a wide set of features. Aptio is AMI's next-generation BIOS firmware based on the Universal Extensible Firmware Interface (specification) Extensible Firmware Interface - (EFI) A specification originating from Intel Corporation, defining the interface between an operating system and platform firmware, and aiming to reduce OS dependence on details of the firmware implementation. EFI Home. (UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface) A standard programming interface for setting up and booting a computer from the UEFI Forum (www.uefi.org). It evolved from the EFI interface developed by Intel, which was first used in Intel's Itanium line. ) Specifications and the Intel[R] Platform Innovation Framework for EFI See UEFI. EFI - Extensible Firmware Interface . Aptio is specifically designed to address firmware portability and extensibility to future platforms. Along with silicon enabling components, Aptio can be expanded using a variety of drivers, development tools, support utilities and pre-boot application solutions. Pricing and Availability AMI's AMIBIOS8 and Aptio products are available directly from AMI. For more information on pricing and availability, please contact Imran Ahmad, Software Sales Manager for Aptio and AMIBIOS products, at 1-800-U-BUY-AMI or SWsales@ami.com. About AMI Founded in 1985, American Megatrends Inc. (AMI), best known for AMIBIOS, supplies state-of-the-art hardware, software and utilities to today's high-tech manufacturers. AMI, focused on IP Storage Area Networks (IP-SAN), Network Attached Storage (NAS (1) See network access server. (2) (Network Attached Storage) A specialized file server that connects to the network. A NAS device contains a slimmed-down operating system and a file system and processes only I/O requests by supporting the popular ), and Storage Management, also offers remote server management, KVM (K Virtual Machine) A version of the Java Virtual Machine for small devices with limited memory. See J2ME. See also KVM switch. KVM - Keyboard Video Mouse over IP, IPMI (Intelligent Platform Management Interface) A protocol for monitoring server hardware for temperature, voltage, chassis intrusion, etc. Introduced in 1998 by Intel, HP, NEC and Dell, IPMI defines a standard set of messages for the characteristics of hardware 2.0 firmware and high-density motherboards. AMI is an Associate Member with the Intel[R] Communications Alliance, a community of communications and embedded developers and solution providers. Headquartered in Atlanta, AMI has locations in the U.S., China, Germany, India, Japan, Korea and Taiwan to better serve its customers. For more information on AMI, its products or services, call 1-800-U-BUY-AMI or visit www.ami.com. About the HyperTransport[TM] Technology Consortium The HyperTransport Technology Consortium is a membership-based, non-profit organization that licenses, manages and promotes HyperTransport Technology. The HyperTransport Consortium was founded in 2001 by leading technology innovators like Advanced Micro Devices, Apple, Broadcom, Cisco, NVIDIA, PMC-Sierra and Sun Microsystems and counts on more than 50 industry-leading member companies worldwide, including Dell, HP and IBM (International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY, www.ibm.com) The world's largest computer company. IBM's product lines include the S/390 mainframes (zSeries), AS/400 midrange business systems (iSeries), RS/6000 workstations and servers (pSeries), Intel-based servers (xSeries) . Membership is based on a yearly fee and it is open to companies interested in licensing the royalty-free use of HyperTransport technology and intellectual property. Consortium members have full access to the HyperTransport technical documents database, they may attend Consortium meetings and events and may benefit from a variety of technical and marketing services, including the new, member-driven web portal, whose business benefits are part of a wide array of services offered by the Consortium free of charge to member companies. To learn more about member benefits and how to become a Consortium member, please visit the Consortium Web site at www.hypertransport.org. HyperTransport and HTX are licensed trademarks of the HyperTransport Technology Consortium. All other trademarks belong to their respective owners. |
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