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Breaking News - Networking:

Alacritech Samples Small, Powerful Multi-Port Gigabit TOE ASIC

Alacritech Inc, an innovator of data acceleration solutions that enable the highest performance and efficiency in networked systems, announced the immediate sampling of the Alacritech STA2000 Internet Protocol Processor (IPP), its fourth generation TCP Offload Engine ASIC based on the company's patented SLIC Technology architecture. The Alacritech STA2000 dual-port TOE IPP is the smallest, most powerful multi-Gigabit TOE ASIC on the market, and is now available to OEMs for next-generation servers, Network-Attached Storage (NAS) or iSCSI devices.

"Alacritech's SLIC Technology architecture for Data Path Offload has proven itself in the market over the past five years, and the new STA2000 TOE processor pushes us even further ahead of all other TOE vendors," said Joe Gervais, director of marketing for Alacritech Inc. "The STA2000 provides the advanced features and twice the Gigabit port density as our industry leading Gigabit TOE in the same footprint -- which is exactly what our customers are demanding for their next generation system and motherboard designs."


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"Pioneers often get stuck with obsolete architectures as new players learn from their mistakes and develop better ones," said Arun Taneja, founder of thr Taneja Group. "However, in the case of Alacritech that pioneered and patented the Data Path Offload architecture, it appears they picked the right approach, especially if one looks at it from the validation that Microsoft seems to be conferring on them via Chimney. This should give Alacritech an edge in the market."

The Alacritech STA2000 IPP ASIC combines the functions of TCP protocol processors and a dual-port Gigabit Ethernet controller within a single chip. Unlike designs based on RISC cores or network processors, the company's patented SLIC Technology architecture and proven state machine-based hardware provide a much faster, smaller, more efficient and economical design. The Alacritech STA2000 is available in a 640 ball, 31mm x 31mm PBGA package, enabling complete dual-port designs in copper or fiber in a compact 14.5 square inches. Dual-port PCI-X TNICs and iSCSI HBA products in either copper or fiber versions in a MD2 low profile form factor are also sampling.

"As operating system vendors embrace Data Path Offload with native TOE APIs and TOE technology becomes mainstream, there is a large market opportunity with blades and other server platforms for multi-port Gigabit Ethernet TCP Offload Engine silicon," said Anil Vasudeva, principal analyst at IMEX Research. "Alacritech pioneered this technology, and its new STA2000 builds upon that deep experience, making Alacritech well-positioned to capitalize on this rapidly expanding market."

The STA2000 shares a common programming model and the mature device drivers of the award-winning Alacritech 1000x1 Accelerator and the Alacritech SES1001 iSCSI Accelerator. Drivers supporting the Windows TCP/IP Chimney Offload architecture will also be available. For custom applications, OEMs can use the Alacritech SLICware Toolkit to port the SLIC Technology architecture into proprietary operating systems.

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