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SAN FRANCISCO, Feb 28, 2005 /PRNewswire-FirstCall via COMTEX/ -- Intel Developer Forum (IDF) -- Broadcom Corporation (Nasdaq: BRCM), a global leader in wired and wireless broadband communications semiconductors, today announced the industry's first SAS/SATA RAID-on-Chip (RoC) device targeted at volume server and workstation markets. This highly integrated, multi-functional RoC device provides the cost, space and power savings required to accelerate the transition of enterprise-class RAID technology to a RAID-on-Motherboard (RoMB) solution. As a result of its cost-effective, single-chip design, the new Broadcom® RoC will increase RAID adoption on cost-sensitive server and workstation platforms.
Representing an important transition in disk drive interconnect technology, SAS (Serial Attached SCSI) is initially expected to start replacing SCSI in enterprise computing platforms in 2005, with wide adoption expected in 2006, according to a number of leading market research firms. A driving factor behind this transition is the parallel interconnect limitations associated with SCSI technology and its effect on design, performance and scalability. SAS is a serial interconnect technology that incorporates high-performance, point-to-point links that are easy to design, deploy and scale. SAS is also compatible with the lower cost SATA interconnect technology that enables system design flexibility and allows for tiered storage offerings that mix SAS and SATA drives. Broadcom is driving I/O convergence and replacing both SCSI and discrete SATA I/O technologies with its single-chip RoC solution.
Other trends driving the need for RAID-on-Chip devices are the increase in storage requirements and the move to lower capacity, small form factor (SFF) 2.5-inch drives, which increase drive densities in servers and workstations. As drive densities increase, the possibility of failure increases as drives are added in a system, placing greater emphasis on resiliency and data integrity requirements in the enterprise. RAID technology is designed to simultaneously increase both reliability and performance in multi-disk drive systems. With today's announcement, Broadcom is integrating both RAID and SAS/SATA protocol capabilities together in a single-chip design, enabling cost-sensitive multi-disk drive platforms to exploit the performance and convergence benefits that SAS and SATA offer, without compromising reliability as drive densities increase.
Announced today is the Broadcom BCM8603 RAID-on-Chip device that integrates several functions that previously existed only as discrete components. The new solution includes the following features:
- Eight 3 Gigabit per second (GB/s) SAS/SATA-II I/O controller ports
- Choice of PCI Express® and PCI-X® host interfaces (with an integrated bridging option)
- Embedded MIPS® processor to run RAID firmware including Broadcom's popular XelCore™ RAID software stack
- RAID5 hardware acceleration logic to increase performance
- Double data rate (DDR) memory controller
In addition to the benefits of SAS/SATA convergence, the BCM8603 RoC also enables the transition from parallel PCI-X host interfaces to cost-effective, high-performance serial PCI Express host interfaces. To accommodate this transition, Broadcom has integrated support for both host bus architectures onto the BCM8603 RoC providing users with a choice of host interfaces based on their system I/O availability. Broadcom announced its first Gigabit Ethernet controller chip based on PCI Express in October 2003 and continues to be a leader in PCI Express I/O device shipments.
Additional enterprise-class RAID functionality is provided by Broadcom's highly portable and scalable XelCore RAID software. The software provides support for all popular RAID levels and incorporates such enterprise-class features as online capacity expansion, online RAID level migration, and the ability to create storage arrays that span multiple storage controllers without having to bring the system down.
"The BCM8603 RoC device enables system designers to design RAID technology with a cost-effective, single-chip solution that can be placed directly on the motherboard, making hardware-based RAID more widely available for cost- sensitive server and workstation platforms," said Tom Marmen, Vice President and General Manager of Broadcom's Storage Line of Business. "Combined with our popular XelCore RAID software, the BCM8603 RoC represents a total storage solution, providing the industry's only single storage I/O device with built- in SAS, SATA-II, PCI Express and PCI-X."
"HP is driving industry adoption of SAS storage technology because of the enhanced performance capabilities it offers customers," said Javier Izquierdo, Director of Server Storage, HP. "Flexible SAS RoC devices, like Broadcom's BCM8603, help fill out the SAS ecosystem by providing a component with unique price/performance/feature characteristics that customers demand."
BCM8603 SAS Demonstration at IDF
The SCSI Trade Association (STA) will host a SAS performance demonstration that features the BCM8603 RoC and its ability to deliver throughput greater than 1 Gigabyte per second running SAS drives in Booth #104 at IDF. As part of the demonstration, multiple BCM8603 RoC controllers employing both PCI-X and PCI-Express interfaces, will deliver the industry's highest performance for SAS throughput to date. Broadcom will also host additional product and performance demonstrations at IDF in Booth #302.
Pricing and Availability
The Broadcom BCM8603 and associated PCI Express/PCI-X reference boards are currently available to early access customers. Pricing is available upon request.
About Broadcom
Broadcom Corporation is a global leader in wired and wireless broadband communications semiconductors. Our products enable the convergence of high- speed data, high definition video, voice and audio at home, in the office and on the go. Broadcom provides manufacturers of computing and networking equipment, digital entertainment and broadband access products, and mobile devices with the industry's broadest portfolio of state-of-the-art system-on- a-chip and software solutions. These solutions support our core mission: Connecting everything®.
Broadcom is one of the world's largest fabless semiconductor companies, with annual revenue of more than $2 billion. The company is headquartered in Irvine, Calif., with offices and research facilities in North America, Asia and Europe. Broadcom may be contacted at 1-949-450-8700 or at http://www.broadcom.com.
Safe Harbor Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995:
All statements included or incorporated by reference in this release, other than statements or characterizations of historical fact, are forward- looking statements. These forward-looking statements are based on our current expectations, estimates and projections about our industry, management's beliefs, and certain assumptions made by us, all of which are subject to change. Forward-looking statements can often be identified by words such as "anticipates," "expects," "intends," "plans," "predicts," "believes," "seeks," "estimates," "may," "will," "should," "would," "could," "potential," "continue," "ongoing," similar expressions, and variations or negatives of these words. These forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future results and are subject to risks, uncertainties and assumptions that could cause our actual results to differ materially and adversely from those expressed in any forward-looking statement.
Important factors that may cause such a difference for Broadcom in connection with the BCM8603 RAID-on-Chip products include, but are not limited to, general economic and political conditions and specific conditions in the markets we address, including the volatility in the technology sector and semiconductor industry, trends in the broadband communications markets in various geographic regions, and possible disruption in commercial activities related to terrorist activity or armed conflict in the United States and other locations; the rate at which our present and future customers and end-users adopt Broadcom's technologies and products in the markets for enterprise and consumer storage and storage networking applications; delays in the adoption and acceptance of industry standards in those markets; the timing, rescheduling or cancellation of significant customer orders and our ability, as well as the ability of our customers, to manage inventory; our ability to retain, recruit and hire key executives, technical personnel and other employees in the positions and numbers, with the experience and capabilities, and at the compensation levels needed to implement our business and product plans; our ability to scale our operations in response to changes in demand for our products and services; our ability to specify, develop or acquire, complete, introduce, market and transition to volume production new products and technologies in a cost-effective and timely manner; the gain or loss of a key customer, design win or order; competitive pressures and other factors such as the qualification, availability and pricing of competing products and technologies and the resulting effects on sales and pricing of our products; the timing of customer-industry qualification and certification of our products and the risks of non-qualification or non-certification; our ability to timely and accurately predict market requirements and evolving industry standards and to identify opportunities in new markets; changes in our product or customer mix; the volume of our product sales and pricing concessions on volume sales; intellectual property disputes and customer indemnification claims and other types of litigation risk; the availability and pricing of third party semiconductor foundry and assembly capacity and raw materials; fluctuations in the manufacturing yields of our third party semiconductor foundries and other problems or delays in the fabrication, assembly, testing or delivery of our products; the risks of producing products with new suppliers and at new fabrication and assembly facilities; the effects of new and emerging technologies; problems or delays that we may face in shifting our products to smaller geometry process technologies and in achieving higher levels of design integration; the quality of our products and any remediation costs; the effectiveness of our expense and product cost control and reduction efforts; the risks and uncertainties associated with our international operations, particularly in light of recent events; the effects of natural disasters, public health emergencies, international conflicts and other events beyond our control; the level of orders received that can be shipped in a fiscal quarter; and other factors.
Our Annual Report on Form 10-K, subsequent Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, recent Current Reports on Form 8-K, and other Securities and Exchange Commission filings discuss the foregoing risks as well as other important risk factors that could contribute to such differences or otherwise affect our business, results of operations and financial condition. The forward-looking statements in this release speak only as of this date. We undertake no obligation to revise or update publicly any forward-looking statement for any reason.
Broadcom®, the pulse logo, Connecting everything®, the Connecting everything logo, and XelCore™ are among the trademarks of Broadcom Corporation and/or its affiliates in the United States, certain other countries and/or the EU. PCI Express® and PCI-X® are trademarks of PCI-SIG Corporation. MIPS® is a trademark of MIPS Technologies, Inc. Any other trademarks or trade names mentioned are the property of their respective owners.
Broadcom Trade Press Contact
Scott Harlin
Public Relations Manager
949-926-5226
sharlin@broadcom.com
Broadcom Investor Relations Contact
T. Peter Andrew
Sr. Director, Investor Relations
949-926-5663
andrewtp@broadcom.com
Broadcom Technical Contact
Cameron Brett
Product Line Manager
408-922-3122
cbrett@broadcom.com
SOURCE Broadcom Corporation
Trade Press: Scott Harlin, Public Relations Manager, +1-949-926-5226, or sharlin@broadcom.com, Investor Relations: T. Peter Andrew, Sr. Director, Investor Relations, +1-949-926-5663, or andrewtp@broadcom.com, Technical: Cameron Brett, Product Line Manager, +1-408-922-3122, cbrett@broadcom.com
