Vitesse Triples NexSAS Expander Family With New High-density Offerings in Support of Large Storage Enclosures.CAMARILLO, Calif. -- Vitesse Semiconductor Corporation (NASDAQ NASDAQ in full National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations U.S. market for over-the-counter securities. Established in 1971 by the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD), NASDAQ is an automated quotation system that reports on :VTSS VTSS Vehicle Theft Security System VTSS Vancouver Technical Secondary School ): --Industry's Most Diverse Line of Serial Attached SCSI See SAS. Expanders Brings Cost-effective, High-density, Serial Attached SCSI Port Expansion With Integrated Enclosure Management and Superior I/O to Large Storage Enclosures and Enterprise Servers Today Vitesse Semiconductor Corporation (NASDAQ:VTSS) today delivers on its promise to enable large Serial Attached SCSI storage subsystems and enterprise servers, with the introduction of three new high-density members to its world-class NexSAS(TM) family of Serial Attached SCSI (SAS (1) (SAS Institute Inc., Cary, NC, www.sas.com) A software company that specializes in data warehousing and decision support software based on the SAS System. Founded in 1976, SAS is one of the world's largest privately held software companies. See SAS System. ) Expanders. With the 18-port VSC7155, 24-port VSC7153, and 36-port VSC7154, Vitesse is the first to deliver working silicon that can triple the connectivity available for enclosure applications while simultaneously reducing OEM development costs in SAS. Vitesse now provides the highest density and broadest range of SAS expander products (based on a common hardware and firmware architecture) in the market today -- servicing both server and storage enclosure applications. Serial attached SCSI is the evolutionary replacement for parallel SCSI, supporting diverse applications in Enterprise storage including JBODs, 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 , RAID subsystems, mid-line and near-line storage facilities, and fixed-content storage systems. With a tremendous increase in port density enabled by the new NexSAS devices, OEMs are now able to build high-capacity, cost-effective storage subsystems as well increase overall system availability and performance through redundancy and link aggregation schemes enabled by the technology. The NexSAS expander architecture also enables OEMs to support both high levels of transaction processing (i.e., Serial Attached SCSI drives) and raw storage capacity (i.e., Serial ATA drives) in the same box. "The VSC7153 and VSC7154 deliver on the scalability supported by the Serial Attached SCSI protocol, which we have been developing in conjunction with other key storage industry players," said Javier Izquierdo, director of Server Storage at Hewlett-Packard in Houston. "Devices like the VSC7153 and the VSC7154 will help enable OEMs and solutions providers to deliver on the flexibility and scalability demanded by customers." The new VSC7153, VSC7154, and VSC7155 expanders are fully integrated devices. On-chip, self-configuring 1.5/3.0 Gbps PHYs and a robust enclosure processor eliminate the need for external components and ease design constraints while conserving board space and power. The NexSAS expanders all employ Vitesse's leading-edge equalization (EQ) technology which provides superior signal processing capabilities through programmable edge rate control, multiple levels of input signal equalization, output pre-emphasis, and output de-emphasis, resulting in better performance for both in- and out-of-box applications (i.e., rack-to-rack, across rooms, or within a datacenter). Each SAS PHY supports automatic port speed detection/negotiation and can be configured into wide ports of any size. Key to product scalability is the embedded v3000 CPU CPU in full central processing unit Principal component of a digital computer, composed of a control unit, an instruction-decoding unit, and an arithmetic-logic unit. (Stanford-1 32-bit RISC RISC in full Reduced Instruction Set Computing Computer architecture that uses a limited number of instructions. RISC became popular in microprocessors in the 1980s. ), which brings enclosure management directly onto the expander and supports firmware developed for all of the Vitesse Enclosure Management processors, including those specifically targeting Fibre Channel, SCSI SCSI in full Small Computer System Interface Once common standard for connecting peripheral devices (disks, modems, printers, etc.) to small and medium-sized computers. SCSI has given way to faster standards, such as Firewire and USB. , 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 , and SATA (Serial ATA) A serial version of the ATA (IDE) interface, which has been the de facto standard hard disk interface for desktop PCs for more than two decades. The original Parallel ATA (PATA) interface was launched in 1986. - maximizing OEM firmware reuse and accelerating time-to-market. An SSP (Serial SCSI Protocol) engine handles SES (SCSI Enclosure Services Most recent SCSI enclosure products support a protocol called SCSI Enclosure Services (SES). The initiator can communicate with the enclosure using a specialised set of SCSI commands to access power, cooling, and other non-data characteristics. ) commands in-band, reducing both response latency and contention with data traffic. Backed by an intuitive API, the engine is programmable by OEMs, enabling them to introduce product-differentiating features, such as sophisticated zoning mechanisms, to quickly interface to off-the-shelf or proprietary network management software or to simply get to market faster with turnkey software. Because the NexSAS family is based on a common software and hardware architecture, OEMs can effortlessly scale designs across port densities and applications while leveraging existing software and firmware. "Vitesse continues to lead and shape the development and deployment of SAS as the serial storage architecture Serial Storage Architecture - (SSA) IBM's proposed ANSI standard for a standard high-speed interface to disk clusters and arrays. SSA allows full-duplex packet multiplexed serial data transfers at rates of 20Mb/sec in each direction. of choice by being the first to provide high-density connectivity solutions for the enclosure space," said Bob Cutter, vice president and general manager of the Storage Products Division at Vitesse. "By integrating the enclosure management function within the SAS expander and providing the industry's most diverse PHY counts, Vitesse has fulfilled its promise to enable its OEM partners to cost-effectively build the large storage sub-systems and servers their enterprise and network storage customers are demanding." Availability and Pricing The new NexSAS devices are sampling to alpha customers today. The 18-port VSC7155 comes in a 448-pin TEBGA TEBGA Thermally Enhanced Bga , while the 24-port VSC7153 and 36-port VSC7154 come in 486-pin and 564-pin TSBGAs, respectively. Volume pricing per unit for the VSC7153 is $42 USD USD In currencies, this is the abbreviation for the U.S. Dollar. Notes: The currency market, also known as the Foreign Exchange market, is the largest financial market in the world, with a daily average volume of over US $1 trillion. , $63 USD for the VSC7154, and $32 USD for the VSC7155. Volume production is slated for the first quarter of 2005. First disclosures will be made at the Network Systems Design Conference (NSDC NSDC National Staff Development Council (Oxford, Ohio) NSDC National Square Dance Convention NSDC Network Systems Design Conference (San Jose, California) NSDC Nunavut Social Development Council ) October 19 - 21, 2004, in San Jose, Calif. About Vitesse Storage Products Division For over two decades, the Storage Products Division at Vitesse has delivered state-of-the-art IC solutions for enterprise storage and storage networking applications. With emphasis on the development of advanced disk array intelligence, high-performance interconnect, and enclosure management devices for Fibre Channel, Serial Attached SCSI, and Serial ATA, the Vitesse portfolio stands second to none for enterprise applications. Vitesse components are used in a wide array of products from industry leading OEMs including Adaptec, Brocade, Dell Computer, EMC (1) (EMC Corporation, Hopkinton, MA, www.emc.com) The leading supplier of storage products for midrange computers and mainframes. Founded in 1979 by Richard J. Egan and Roger Marino, EMC has developed advanced storage and retrieval technologies for the world's largest companies. , Emulex, Hewlett-Packard, Hitachi Data Systems See HDS. , IBM, Engenio Information Technologies, Sun Microsystems, and others. About Vitesse Vitesse designs, develops, and markets a diverse portfolio of high-performance, cost-competitive semiconductor solutions for communications and storage networks worldwide. Engineering excellence and dedicated customer service distinguish Vitesse as an industry leader in Gigabit Ethernet LAN (Local Area Network) A communications network that serves users within a confined geographical area. The "clients" are the user's workstations typically running Windows, although Mac and Linux clients are also used. , Ethernet-over-SONET, Advanced Switching, Fibre Channel, Serial Attached SCSI, Optical Transport, and other applications. Vitesse innovation empowers customers to deliver superior products for Enterprise, Access, Metro, and Core applications. Additional company and product information is available at www.vitesse.com. Vitesse and NexSAS are registered trademarks in the United States and/or other jurisdictions of Vitesse Semiconductor Corporation. All other trademarks or registered trademarks mentioned herein are the property of their respective holders. Note to editors: Additional technical information and photo are available at: Product Brief: http://www.vitesse.com/products/briefs/VSC7153_54_55_PB.pdf Glossary: API: Application Programming Interface IPMI: Intelligent Platform Management Interface JBOD: Just a Bunch of Disks NAS: Network Attached Storage OEM: Original Equipment Manufacturer SAN: Storage Area Network SAS: Serial Attached SCSI SATA: Serial ATA SES: SCSI Enclosure Services SCSI: Small Computer System Interface SSP: Serial SCSI Protocol RAID: Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks TSBGA: Thermally Enhanced Ball Grid Array |
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