JNI Employs Eight Xtensa Processors
in New Fibre Channel Architecture
New Architecture
Provides 5x Speed and 4x I/O Performance of
Previous Generation
Also see JNI X8 Announcement
release
Santa Clara, Calif. – June 11, 2003 – Tensilica,
Inc. the leading supplier of configurable and extensible
microprocessor cores, today announced that the
new JNI X8TM architecture from JNI Corporation
(Nasdaq: JNIC) employs eight Tensilica Xtensa processors.
The Xtensa processors help JNI’s X8-based
Fibre Channel controllers to achieve a host transfer
rate of up to 4 gigabytes per second (GB) and up
to 300,000 I/Os per second, a five times speed
enhancement and a four times peak I/O performance
improvement over their previous generation product.
Tensilica’s Xtensa microprocessor architecture
provides a powerful, integrated hardware and software
development environment with thousands of configuration
options and an unlimited range of customer-specific
extensions. The environment enables designers to
carefully tune the processor for their particular
application. Because all options are automatically
recognized as “native” by a complete
set of software development tools, developers can
simultaneously tune both application software and
processor hardware to meet specific speed, power
and feature goals.
“We carefully studied different embedded
32-bit processors and picked Xtensa because we
could configure it for maximum performance,” said
Sassan Teymouri, vice president of ASICs at JNI. “We
believe the Xtensa processors give us a competitive
advantage. Xtensa executes certain instructions
most frequently used in the I/O stack faster than
other processors.”
The JNI X8 architecture achieves high performance
and low cost in server and embedded applications
by integrating two fully independent Fibre Channel
protocol engines, four embedded 200+MHz Tensilica
Xtensa processors per channel, 1-2-4gigabits per
second (Gb) SERDES, a 10Gb attachment unit interface
(XAUI), internal and external memory controllers.
This highly parallel architecture provides independent
control of each Fibre Channel port with four CPUs/port
operating in concert to maximize data throughput
at 1-2-4Gb and 10Gb speeds while minimizing host
CPU workload.
“JNI’s X8 architecture is an excellent
example of the performance that can be achieved
with multi-processor designs,” stated Bernie
Rosenthal, Tensilica’s Senior Vice President
of Marketing and Sales. “By integrating eight
Xtensa microprocessor cores, JNI’s X8 architecture
can meet the formidable demands of 10 Gb wire speeds.”
About JNI
JNI Corporation is one of the leading
manufacturers of connectivity products for the
enterprise data center and the leading provider
of Fibre Channel-based host bus adapters (HBAs)
for Solaris servers. JNI offers a broad line
of Fibre Channel HBAs, InfiniBand Host Channel
Adapters, storage ASICs and software. The products
operate on Solaris, Windows 2000, Windows NT, HP-UX,
AIX and Linux systems. JNI customers, distributors
and strategic partners include Acal Electronics,
Ltd., Arrow Electronics, Bell Microproducts,
Brocade, Chaparral, Crossroads, EMC, Eurologic,
GE Access, HP, Hitachi Data Systems, IBM, Info-X,
LSI Logic, McDATA, Mellanox, Nishan Systems, StorageTek,
Sun Microsystems, TidalWire and Veritas. Company
headquarters are in San Diego, with offices throughout
the U.S., Europe and Asia. www.jni.com.
JNI - enterprising solutions™
About Tensilica
Tensilica was founded in July
1997 to address the growing need for optimized,
application-specific microprocessor solutions
in high-volume embedded applications. With a configurable
and extensible microprocessor core called Xtensa,
Tensilica is the only company that has automated
and patented the time-consuming process of generating
a customized microprocessor core along with a
complete software development tool environment,
producing new configurations in a matter of hours.
For more information, visit www.tensilica.com.
# # #
Editors’ Notes:
- “Tensilica” and “Xtensa” are
registered trademarks belonging to Tensilica
Inc. All other trademarks are the property of
their respective holders.
- Tensilica’s announced
licensees are Agilent, Astute Networks, Avision,
Bay Microsystems, Berkeley Wireless Research
Center, Broadcom, Cisco Systems, Conexant Systems,
Cypress, ETRI, FUJIFILM Microdevices, Fujitsu
Ltd., Hudson Soft, Hughes Network Systems, IC4IC,
Ikanos Communications, JNI Corporation, Marvell,
Mindspeed Technologies, National Semiconductor,
NEC Labs, NEC Networks, NEC Solutions, Nippon
Telephone and Telegraph (NTT), Olympus Optical
Co. Ltd., ONEX Communications, OptiX Networks,
Osaka & Kyoto
Universities, S2io, Sony, TranSwitch Corporation,
Trebia Networks, Victor Company of Japan
(JVC) and ZiLOG.
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