CIMdata PLM Industry Summary Online Archive
30 June 2004
Implementation Investments
Xyratex Adopts Mentor Graphics PCI Express Intellectual Property for Advanced Switching Industry Standard
Mentor Graphics Corp. announced an intellectual property (IP) technology relationship with Xyratex, a supplier of enterprise storage solutions targeting Advanced Switching (ASI) data fabrics. Xyratex is a leading contributor in the development of the Advanced Switching specification. This specification, targeting networking equipment manufacturers, enables the standardization of today's proprietary-based backplanes for cost and reduced design-time efficiencies. Mentor Graphics is a provider of certified, standards-based IP cores that includes PCI Express as a key product offering.
Advanced Switching is a multi-point, peer-to-peer switched interconnect standard offering encapsulation of any protocol, multiple messaging mechanisms, quality of service (QoS) including congestion management, extended high availability features and much more. It uses the same physical- and data-link layers as the PCI Express architecture, taking advantage of the tremendously large ecosystem poised to command the market starting in 2004. For more information please refer to the ASI SIG http://www.asi-sig.org/
"Our development activity is driving towards adoption of new standards," said Will Leonard, Executive VP of New Business Development, Xyratex Integrated Systems Division. "We selected Mentor Graphics as our SoC partner for Advanced Switching interface IP because of their history and reputation for delivering proven, reusable IP solutions and their commitment to industry standards and certification."
Xyratex and Mentor Graphics ( http://www.mentor.com/ ) engineers have been closely involved in ensuring the solution meets the requirements of the ASI specification and the needs of next generation interconnect solutions. "We believe the next generation of enterprise computing and communications platforms will require a low cost, high bandwidth interconnect solution. The combination of PCI Express physical layer technology with the versatility of the ASI protocol will help our customers achieve this goal," said Ian Johnson, Chief Scientist of Xyratex.
"We are pleased to work closely with early adopters of important new technologies," said Michael Kaskowitz, general manager, Intellectual Property Division, Mentor Graphics. "Sharing our mutual knowledge of the Advanced Switching standard, and leveraging our experience in producing compliant IP solutions help reduce risks of failure. This relationship helps strengthen our leading position in the development of standards-based communication IP cores."
Mentor Graphics PCI Express IP provides an excellent foundation for Advanced Switching solutions:
• Scalable architecture: x1, x2, x4, x8, x12, x16 lanes at 2.5Gbps
• Supports PCI Express endpoints, switches and root complex ports
• Low latency implementation
• Power management, AER, hot plug, multiple links per port
• Up to 4,096 byte packets for Tx & Rx and retry buffers
• 64 or 128 bit FIFO based back-end interface
• 8 or 16 bit PIPE interface to SerDes PHY
• Full support for ASI in the Data Link Layer, which may be used independently of the Transaction Layer
The PCI Express Configurable Port will be available in VHDL and Verilog source code, with testbench and documentation. For more information on Mentor Graphics IP cores, please visit: http://www.mentor.com/inventra
Xyratex designs and manufactures enabling technology that provides OEM and disk drive manufacturer customers with data storage products to support high-performance storage and data communication networks. Founded in 1994 in an MBO from IBM, and with headquarters in the UK, the company employs over 700 people with around a third working in R&D. Xyratex has an established global base with R&D and operational facilities in Europe, the United States and South East Asia. For further information about Xyratex storage products, please visit http://www.xyratex.com , or contact your regional sales director.
The Advanced Switching Interconnect SIG (ASI SIG) is a non-profit collaborative trade organization tasked with developing and supporting a switched interconnect and data fabric interface specification for communications, storage and embedded equipment, termed Advanced Switching Interconnect (ASI), based on the PCI Express* architecture. More information can be found at http://www.asi-sig.org
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