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Chips Dip Into Serial, 4-Gbit/s
Semiconductor vendors elbow into position to cash in on the serial disk technology bonanza
November 5, 2004
5 Min Read
Chipmakers are clearly embracing serial disk-drive technologies, but they're also banking on a new generation of Fibre Channel.
In the last month, there have been chips for a range of potential applications in serial advanced technology attachment (SATA) and serial-attached SCSI (SAS) disk products. They've come from traditional storage chip companies, networking chip guys looking to get into SAS and SATA and startups jockeying for recognition. And this is just beginning, considering SAS drives wont be shipping until late next year.
Meanwhile, though SAS and SATA are meant to offer a lower-cost alternative to Fibre Channel drives, chipmakers are introducing a range of 4-Gbit/s wares targeting the new speed.
Let's start at the top: IDC identifies the transition from parallel to serial drive interfaces as a major driver that will push storage chips to a $1 billion market next year (see IDC: Storage Looking Chipper).
Others agree. “That’s the hot area now,” analyst Linley Gwennap of The Linley Group says of chips built for SAS and SATA drives. “There’s a lot of opportunities there. But when you’re in the first generation of a technology, they just take the old stuff and change out the interfaces. There will probably be more innovation in the next six to 12 months as everybody gets caught up in the new technology.”In recent weeks, two vendors rolled out 24- and 36-port SAS expanders, two more announced SATA–on-a-chips, and two startups came out of stealth with OEM deals:
PMC-Sierra Inc. (Nasdaq: PMCS) announced its maxSAS chip family, including 24- and 36-port SAS expanders (see PMC-Sierra Unveils SAS Family). The SAS expanders allow storage companies to build systems that support both SAS and SATA drives -- key to supporting a slew of predicted products with both kinds of disk technology (see Report: SATA & SAS to Share Systems). Adaptec Inc. (Nasdaq: ADPT) will use PMC-Sierra's new chips with its SAS controller and SAS HBA. PMC-Sierra also has 6- and 12-port expanders.
Vitesse Semiconductor Corp. (Nasdaq: VTSS) introduced 18-, 24-, and 36-port SAS expanders for its NexSAS family. Vitesse also has 6-, 9-, and 12-port expanders (see Vitesse Adds SAS Expanders).
Broadcom Corp. (Nasdaq: BRCM) announced a SATA RAID-on-a-chip (ROC) device and a single-chip I/O controller for HyperTransport devices, based on technology it acquired when it purchased RaidCore last February (see Broadcom Raids SATA Startup).
Marvell Technology Group Ltd. (Nasdaq: MRVL) announced its SATA-on-a-chip (SOC) will be used in Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. (Korea: SEC) hard drives. Marvell claims its SATA SOC has the smallest pin count and footprint of any hard-drive SOC (see Samsung, Marvell Debut SATA Drive).
Startup Sierra Logic Inc. launched its first product, a silicon storage router, and announced OEM deals with Dot Hill Systems Corp. (Nasdaq: HILL) and Xyratex Ltd. (Nasdaq: XRTX). (See Sierra Logic Ships Storage Router.) The router is actually a chip that sits between SATA drives and a RAID controller and provides Fibre Channel features such as scaleable routing and full-path redundancy. Sierra Logic CEO Bob Whitson says four more OEM deals are in the works with system vendors.
Startup SiliconStor came out of stealth with an "active-active" multiplexer chip and an OEM deal with Dot Hill (see SiliconStor Signs On for SATA ). SiliconStor is the first to market with an active-active multiplexer, but other companies are likely to follow soon. The active-active multiplexer enables disk-array manufacturers to make single-port SATA drives look like dual-port drives, doubling bandwidth.
While SAS and SATA are clearly emerging, there's another chip trend afoot: 4-Gbit/s Fibre Channel. The introduction of new wares in this department indicates component makers aren't expecting serial disk to replace FC anytime soon:
Agilent Ventures announced a 4-gig Fibre Channel controller chip to use the new PCI Express system bus (see Orlando Braces for Industry Storm and Agilent Intros 4-Gbit/s FC Controller). Agilent’s adapter was part of a demonstration at last week's Storage Networking World tradeshow, along with 4-Gbit/s HBAs from Emulex Corp. (NYSE: ELX) and QLogic Corp. (Nasdaq: QLGC); storage enclosures from Xyratex; and Seagate Technology Inc. (NYSE: STX) hard drives.
LSI Logic Corp. (NYSE: LSI) announced OEM sample availability of a 4-Gbit/s controller IC for embedded applications and a 4-Gbit/s HBA (see LSI OEMs Sample 4-Gig HBA).
Intel Corp. (Nasdaq: INTC) also reemphasized its commitment to storage by expanding its Xeon platform with Extended Memory 64 Technology (EM64T) aimed specifically at storage controllers (see Intel Launches Storage Processor). Intel claims EM64T will extend memory addressability of storage systems beyond 4-Gbit/s, increasing performance for storage-intensive applications such as databases.
But Linley's Gwennap says EM64T won’t be much of a factor in storage until 4-Gbit/s becomes more prevalent. “It’s probably not that big a deal in the short term for storage,” he says. “[The technology was] developed for the server, and they’re taking it into storage because they have it.”
Bottom line? SAS and SATA chip releases are showing that predictions about the emergence of serial disk technologies aren't just wishful thinking. At the same time, it looks as if a new breed of 4-Gbit/s Fibre Channel will offer multispeed SANs with new flexibility, multiplying alternatives.
— Dave Raffo, Senior Editor, Byte and Switch0
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