LSI LOGIC Announces Availability of 8-Port Serial Attached SCSI Controller IC

"LSI Logic understands that SAS and SATA have the potential to significantly change the economics of the external storage market," said Tony Asaro, senior analyst at the Enterprise Strategy Group. "Customers are looking for different disk drive options for tiered storage and we have seen SATA have great success in the market. The compatibility of SAS and SATA should ensure the success of both drive technologies balancing cost, capacity, performance and reliability."

Delivering data transfer rates of 3Gb/s, the LSISAS1068 leverages the LSI Logic Fusion-MPT(TM) (Message Passing Technology) architecture, a performance- based message passing protocol that offloads the host CPU. In addition to performance benefits, Fusion-MPT architecture speeds OEM system development as it allows compatibility with LSI Logic's complete line of common architecture drivers. The architecture provides the benefit of complete binary compatibility of host software across different physical interfaces (such as SCSI, Fibre Channel and Serial Attached SCSI). The result is reduced software development, as well as considerably less integration and certification time, for system designers with a critical need to shorten time to market.

Workstation, server and storage system applications

"Since January, LSI Logic has been delivering fully interoperable SAS controllers and SAS expanders, and is the only manufacturer able to provide an end-to-end SAS solution," said Robin Wagner, director of product marketing for the LSI Logic Storage Standard Products division. "With the introduction and sampling of the LSISAS1068, we are further extending our leadership by providing customers with the SAS solutions they need to test and develop flexible, high-performance workstation, enterprise server and storage systems."

The LSISAS1068 also supports integrated RAID designed for systems requiring redundancy and high-availability, but not needing a full featured RAID implementation.

SAS technology enables SCSI interface solutions beyond Ultra320 to the next-generation Direct Attach Storage (DAS) enterprise server and high- performance workstation markets, while retaining device-level backward compatibility. The SAS standard defines a device-level enterprise storage interface incorporating SCSI command sets, serial point-to-point interconnections, dual porting, increased addressability and the ability to scale to small form factors. As the SAS physical layer is compatible with Serial ATA, users have the choice of populating their systems with SAS or SATA hard disk drives, or a combination of both.

LSI Logic is recognized worldwide as the leader in developing storage industry technology standards, and is the only company that delivers first-to- market storage products across all critical interface technologies. From ASIC solutions to controller and expander ICs, RAID storage adapters and host bus adapters, LSI Logic is at the core of every business storage solution.

   URLs to Extend Your Product Knowledge and Understanding
   LSI Logic storage products                 http://lsilogic.com/storage
   LSI Logic SAS products and technology      http://lsilogic.com/sas
   Fusion-MPT architecture                    http://lsilogic.com/fusion

  About LSI Logic

LSI Logic Corporation focuses on the design and production of high- performance semiconductors for Consumer, Communications and Storage applications that access, interconnect and store data, voice and video. LSI Logic engineers incorporate reusable, industry-standard intellectual property building blocks that serve as the heart of leading-edge systems. LSI Logic serves its global OEM, channel and distribution customers with Platform ASICs, standard-cell ASICs, standard products, host bus adapters, RAID controllers and software. In addition, the company supplies storage network solutions for the enterprise. LSI Logic is headquartered at 1621 Barber Lane, Milpitas, CA 95035. http://www.lsilogic.com/

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CONTACT: Jon Carlson of LSI Logic Corporation, +1-719-533-7982 or
jcarlson@lsil.com; or Jay Russo of LVA Communications, +1-860-739-5598 or
Jay@lva.com, for LSI Logic Corporation

Web site: http://www.lsilogic.com/