PMC-Sierra Announces Controller

SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- PMC-Sierra, Inc. (Nasdaq:PMCS) today announced the PM8032 Tachyon QE8 Fibre Channel protocol controller to enable a new class of networked storage systems. Storage networks are moving to 8Gbit/s connectivity to remove bandwidth bottlenecks created by data consolidation through virtualization and the explosion in Web 2.0 fixed content storage. PMC-Sierra’s Tachyon QE8 specifically addresses these new applications and system requirements by doubling the performance of existing solutions and adding a host of advanced features, including PCI-Express 2.0 Gen-II, Multiple Outbound Read Requests and advanced 8Gbit/s serial link monitoring. The Tachyon QE8 is fully interoperable with PMC-Sierra’s family of 4Gbit/s Fibre Channel products, enabling the industry’s leading storage OEMs to increase performance, decrease power and preserve years of software investment. The Tachyon QE8 can also be combined with PMC-Sierra’s industry-leading SAS/SATA protocol controllers and expanders to enable our customers to deliver a broad range of high-performance, tiered-storage system solutions (Figure 1).

“Fibre Channel is the industry mainstay of storage-area networking infrastructure and the emergence of virtualization is accelerating SAN adoption at an unprecedented rate,” said Mark Stibitz, vice president and general manager of PMC-Sierra’s Enterprise Storage Division. “PMC-Sierra worked closely with the industry’s leading storage OEMs to deliver an 8Gbit/s solution that exceeds the performance and advanced feature requirements for their next generation storage networks.”

The Tachyon QE8 combines four ports of 8Gbit/s Fibre Channel with eight lanes of 5Gbit/s PCIe 2.0 bandwidth, enabling unsurpassed levels of performance for networked storage (see Figure 2). In addition, the QE8 leverages an industry-proven Tachyon State Machine architecture that combines low latency with a high level of system performance and scalability. PMC-Sierra provides a comprehensive Tachyon Software Development kit (TSDK), including source code and drivers, to significantly reduce firmware development time and accelerate time to market.

PMC-Sierra Inc.