PMC-Sierra Announces ROC

SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- PMC-Sierra, Inc. (Nasdaq:PMCS) today announced the PM8010 SRC 8x6G, the industrys first 6Gbit/s RAID-on-Chip (RoC) controller for next generation server architectures. The RAID controller targets the x86 volume server segment, which represented almost seven million units in 2006, and is expected to grow at more than seven percent annually, according to IDC. The SRC 8x6G’s RoCstar™ architecture harnesses the full throughput of SAS 2.0 and PCI Express 2.0, more than doubling the performance of existing solutions and enabling a new class of enterprise servers. The SRC 8x6G, together with PMC-Sierra’s maxSAS™ expanders and multiplexers, provides a complete server storage chip set solution (see Figure 1).

“PMC-Sierra continues to demonstrate both technology and product leadership in the Enterprise storage semiconductor market,” said Bob Bailey, chairman and CEO, PMC-Sierra, Inc. “With the introduction of the SRC 8x6G, we are leveraging our strengths in high-performance embedded processor design, storage protocol controllers and multi-gigabit serial technology to offer a market-leading 6Gbit/s SAS/SATA RAID-on-Chip solution. The SRC 8x6G will enable our customers to cost-effectively develop and deploy next-generation servers with more than double the storage throughput performance compared to current 3G SAS based RoC solutions.”

Data center demands for higher computing power, networking bandwidth and support for virtualization applications are driving system requirements for improved host bus interface, input-output, and RAID performance. PMC-Sierra’s RoC device is SAS 2.0 compliant, doubling the storage throughput to 6Gbit/s and enabling a new level of system reliability, availability and scalability. The SRC 8x6G is also compliant to the PCI Express 2.0 standard, doubling the host bus interface bandwidth to 5Gbit/s and improving power management, diagnostics and virtualization capabilities.

“Customers have come to rely on the HP ProLiant and BladeSystem platforms for unmatched performance and reliability for their business-critical application needs,” said Mike Gill, vice president of Industry Standard Servers, HP. “As the first vendor to offer a full portfolio of SAS-based servers, HP is pleased to be working with PMC-Sierra on next generation SAS RAID-on-Chip designs. We look forward to delivering robust, leading edge server storage solutions based on these devices to our customers.”

PMC-Sierra Inc.