Features - Storage Innovations:

MARVELL INTRODUCES 3 GBPS SERIAL ATA II HOST CONTROLLERS

Marvell, a technology leader in the development of extreme broadband communications solutions, announced the industry's first 3.0 Gbps Serial ATA II PCI-X Host Controllers, enabling the next generation of Enterprise Serial ATA storage applications. Using the new 88SX6081 (8-port) and 88SX6041 (4-port) Serial ATA II controllers, OEMs are developing the industry's highest performance, most cost-effective solutions for Server RAID on Motherboard (ROMB), RAID Adapters, Network Attached Storage (NAS), Storage Area Network (SAN) and Nearline Storage Arrays.

Marvell led the industry in adoption of Serial ATA technology with the 2001 introduction of the first Parallel to Serial bridging products and the 2002 introduction of the first 4- and 8-port 88SX50xx PCI-X Serial ATA Host Controllers. Marvell has shipped over 5 million Serial ATA ports to date and has recorded over 50 design wins with its Serial ATA products.

Serial ATA has enabled a new class of cost-effective primary storage solutions that complements today's high-end Fibre Channel architectures, when IT budget dollars are at a premium. The low cost and high capacity of ATA-based Hard Disk Drives (HDD) also provides new options for data backup using Nearline storage to complement traditional Tape Backup systems.

"Serial ATA technology is already becoming a significant force in the development of lower cost server and external disk storage systems, and is ramping in share as the market leaders in these spaces continue to introduce Serial ATA based systems into their product lines," said Sean Lavey, a semiconductor analyst with IDC. "The introduction of Serial ATA II based silicon should accelerate this trend as it provides critical performance improvements necessary for adoption in a wider range of enterprise environments."

"We are seeing strong adoption of Serial ATA technology in the market-leading vendors for Servers, RAID Adapters, enterprise RAID Arrays and Nearline storage," said Balaji Baktha, general manager of Marvell's Storage Networking Business Unit. "Marvell's Serial ATA II solutions provide these customers a platform to develop a host of next generation enterprise applications."

The 88SX60xx controllers implement Marvell's second-generation Serial ATA physical layer (PHY) technology that supports both 1.5 Gbps and 3.0 Gbps operation for high performance Serial ATA backplane implementations. Spread Spectrum Clocking (SSC) provides optimal EMI performance for lower enclosure costs and easier system certification.

Operation at 3.0 Gbps enables plug-and-play support for next generation Serial ATA II 3.0 Gbps Hard Drives. Serial ATA II Port Multiplier support allows aggregation of multiple 1.5 Gbps Serial ATA links into a single 3.0 Gbps host port for high-density storage enclosures using next generation 2.5-inch form factor drives.

The 88SX60xx devices implement Serial ATA II Native Command Queuing (NCQ) significantly increasing performance on enterprise applications such as e-mail servers and databases that rely heavily on random accesses. The 88SX60xx devices also support Serial ATA I/ATA-6 Tag Command Queuing (TCQ) used in Marvell's first generation 88SX50xx Serial ATA Host Controllers allowing full interoperability with today's high performance Serial ATA I TCQ drives.

The 88SX60xx software Application Programming Interface (API) compatibility with Marvell's first generation Serial ATA I Host Controllers enables rapid migration to Serial ATA II technology. In addition, the API utilizes a SCSI programming model, allowing SCSI applications to be easily ported to Serial ATA HDD subsystems. Reduced software development cycles offer OEMs using Marvell solutions a significant time to market advantage in a competitive market environment.