Alliance Semiconductor Introduces High-Performance HyperTransport-to-PCI/PCI-X Bridge; New Chip Delivers Optimized Solution for Embedded Applications
SANTA CLARA, Calif.—(BUSINESS WIRE)—March 29, 2004—
Alliance Semiconductor Corporation (Nasdaq:ALSC), a
leading worldwide provider of analog and mixed signal products,
high-performance memory products and systems solutions for the
communications, computing, embedded, industrial and consumer markets,
today announced the availability of its high-performance AS90L10208
HyperTransport(TM)-to-PCI/PCI-X Bridge. The AS90L10208 is designed and
optimized for bandwidth- and performance-intensive embedded
applications in communications, networking, servers and storage
systems.
The AS90L10208 is completely interoperable with the HyperTransport
(HT) interface on the new generation of leading embedded and compute
microprocessors from AMD, Broadcom, PMC-Sierra and Transmeta. The
AS90L10208 allows system architects to leverage the performance of
these leading microprocessors while still maintaining compatibility
with legacy systems. The AS90L10208 bridges the HT interface from
these microprocessors to a standard 64-bit PCI/PCI-X bus, enabling
them to tap into the vast infrastructure of peripherals and system
components based on PCI and PCI-X such as network interface cards
(NICs), RAID controllers, host bus adaptors (HBAs) and others.
"The AS90L10208 provides system architects with an unlimited set
of design options that require the high performance, high bandwidth
and high efficiency of the HT bus with the capability to tap into the
vast infrastructure of peripherals and system components based on PCI
and PCI-X," said Robert Napaa, vice president of marketing and
business development for Alliance's System Solutions business unit and
vice president of the HyperTransport Technology Consortium.
The AS90L10208 has two 8-bit HT ports that operate at frequencies
up to 800 MHz DDR in both transmit and receive directions and sustains
a total aggregate bandwidth up to 25.6 Gbps per HT port. The single
64-bit PCI/PCI-X 1.0b bus operates at frequencies of 25, 33, 50, 66,
100 and 133MHz. This 64-bit PCI/PCI-X bus can be configured to operate
as two totally independent 32-bit PCI/PCI-X buses, enabling system
design engineers to accommodate 32-bit PCI peripherals and provide
further fan-out for down-stream devices. The AS90L10208 can
simultaneously work as an HT tunnel device, transferring the data
between the two HT ports, or as a bridge device transferring the data
between either of the HT ports and the PCI/PCI-X bus.
The AS90L10208 can be configured to support dual-hosted chains
where a host CPU can be connected to each HT port, enabling them to
directly exchange data and to share common system resources across the
PCI/PCI-X bus, thus reducing the latency of the data transfer and
increasing the system performance. It also maintains full software
backward compatibility with Alliance's first HT-to-PCI bridge, the
SP1011, thus reducing development cycle time and leveraging existing
software built around the SP1011.
Up to 31 AS90L10208 devices can be daisy-chained to build higher
capacity systems with multiple PCI/PCI-X buses and HT-based
peripherals. A fairness algorithm allocates bandwidth among the
devices, thereby eliminating any bandwidth starvation of bridges at
the end of the chain.
The AS90L10208 is currently sampling and production will begin in
3Q 2004.
About Alliance:
Alliance Semiconductor Corporation (Nasdaq:ALSC) is powering every
application with high performance solutions for the communications,
computing and consumer electronics markets. Utilizing advanced process
technologies and design expertise, Alliance provides leading OEMs with
a broad portfolio of complementary technologies including analog and
mixed-signal products, chip-to-chip connectivity products, networking
controllers and high-performance memories. Alliance addresses the
complete needs of system developers by leveraging its proprietary
advances in Electromagnetic Interference (EMI) reduction, power
management and timing technology, HyperTransport(TM) I/O connectivity
and specialized memory solutions for next-generation applications.
Founded in 1985, Alliance is headquartered in Santa Clara, Calif. with
design centers in Bangalore and Hyderabad, India. The company is
publicly traded and included in the S&P 600 Index. Additional
information is available on the Alliance Web site at:
http://www.alsc.com.
Contact:
Alliance Semiconductor Corporation, Santa Clara
Robert Napaa, 408-855-4900
napaa@alsc.com
or
Shelton Public Relations
Press Contact
Katie Olivier, 972-239-5119
kolivier@sheltongroup.com
