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SAN DIEGO, June 3, 2003 , - JNI® Corporation (Nasdaq:JNIC),
a leading supplier of storage networking host bus adapters (HBAs), today announced
the JNI X8TM architecture that will be the foundation of its next generation Fibre
Channel controllers and HBAs. 10 gigabits per second (10Gb) Fibre Channel controllers
and HBAs powered by the X8 architecture will deliver a host transfer rate up to
4 gigabytes per second and up to 300K I/Os per second. 1-2-4Gb Fibre Channel controllers
and HBAs powered by the X8 architecture will offer customers with 2Gb SANs twice
the performance of previous generation HBAs and the ability to automatically negotiate
between 1, 2 and 4Gb fabric speeds. The first Fibre Channel controllers based
on the X8 architecture are designed for next generation servers and embedded applications
built on the new PCI-X 2.0 bus (266/533MHz). Samples of JNI X8 powered Fibre Channel
controllers will be available in Q4 2003. JNI 1-2-4Gb and 10Gb FibreStarTM Fibre
Channel HBAs based on the X8 architecture will be generally available in the first
half of 2004. "JNI's next generation X8 architecture
is designed for the realities of the current IT environment," said JNI CEO,
Russell Stern. "It is a customer-driven design rather than a vendor-driven
design. Our customers need performance improvements and cost reductions for their
installed 2Gb SANs. They need the flexibility to seamlessly move to a 4Gb fabric,
should that market emerge, and they need 10Gb SAN fabrics for their performance
sensitive applications. JNI's next generation Fibre Channel Controllers and HBAs
powered by the X8 architecture deliver on all of these requirements."
Features of the JNI X8 Architecture
JNI's X8 architecture is initially designed to deliver 10Gb Fibre Channel performance
for servers and embedded applications built on the PCI-X 2.0 (266/533MHz) bus.
Future versions will be available for the PCI Express (8X) bus. The JNI X8 architecture
achieves high performance and low cost in these applications by integrating two
fully independent FC protocol engines, four embedded 200+MHz Tensilica® RISC
processors per channel, 1-2-4Gb SERDES, a 10Gb attachment unit interface (XAUI),
internal and external memory controllers. This highly parallel architecture provides
independent control of each Fibre Channel port with four CPUs/port operating in
concert to maximize data throughput at 1-2-4Gb and 10Gb speeds while minimizing
host CPU workload. "By integrating eight Tensilica Xtensa
microprocessor cores, JNI’s X8 advanced 10Gb Fibre Channel controller architecture
can meet the demands for enhanced I/O performance at 10Gb wire speeds," said
Bernie Rosenthal, Senior VP of Marketing and Sales, Tensilica, Inc. Features
of JNI products powered by the X8 architecture will include:
- 10Gb Fibre Channel Attachment Unit Interface (XAUI)
- Eight embedded 200+MHz Tensilica RISC processors
- Dual 1-2-4Gb Fibre Channel with integrated SERDES
- Full duplex 1-2-4Gb FC auto-link speed, auto-topology
- Up to 300,000 aggregate I/Os per second
- Memory up to 128MB external DDR SDRAM and 2MB NVRAM
- External QDR RAM support for 10Gb data rates up to 100 km
- PCI-X 2.0 (266/533 MHz) host interface (compatible with PCI and PCI-X 1.0)
- FC Industry compliance: FC-PI, FC-FS, 10GFC, FC-PLDA, FC-AL, FC-FLA,
FC-FG, FC-SW, FC-GS, FCP-2, FC-Tape, FC-HBA
JNI Fibre Channel controllers based on the X8 architecture will
have eight times the number of processors, five times the speed and over four
times the peak I/O performance of the 2Gb Emerald IV controller used on the FCX2-6562
HBA named by Storage magazine as "overall speed champion” in its December
2002 article, “Road Testing Fast HBAs".
"As the industry transitions from 1Gb to 2Gb Fibre Channel,
infrastructure suppliers such as JNI have been selling and supporting an increased
number of products," said Eric Sheppard, Sr. Research Analyst with IDC. "JNI’s
approach with the X8 architecture gives the company a single platform that can
be leveraged to efficiently build 1, 2, 4 or 10Gb Fibre Channel HBAs."
The first product based on the JNI’s X8 architecture, the
JNIC-2010 Fibre Channel to SPI-3 Controller, is available now to qualified OEMs.
For more information, contact JNI at
1-877-282-5516 or by email at sales@jni.com.
About JNI Corporation
JNI Corporation is one of the leading manufacturers of connectivity products for
the enterprise data center and the leading provider of Fibre Channel-based host
bus adapters (HBAs) for Solaris servers. JNI offers a broad line of Fibre Channel
HBAs, InfiniBand Host
Channel Adapters, storage ASICs and software. The products operate on Solaris,
Windows 2000, Windows NT, HP-UX, AIX and Linux systems. JNI customers, distributors
and strategic partners include Acal Electronics, Ltd., Arrow Electronics, Bell
Microproducts, Brocade, Chaparral, Crossroads, EMC, Eurologic, GE Access, HP,
Hitachi Data Systems, IBM, Info-X, LSI Logic, McDATA, Mellanox, Nishan Systems,
StorageTek, Sun Microsystems, TidalWire and Veritas. Company headquarters are
in San Diego, with offices throughout the U.S., Europe and Asia. www.jni.com.
JNI - enterprising solutions™
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