PFNH technology:
Twenty years ago one chip ran your entire computer. Today you have specialist chips within your computer. The main CPU handles the majority of the processing. However, you may have a special graphics card with an associated graphics chip which helps alleviate the load on the main CPU.
You are looking at a picture of Adaptec's latest and greatest ethernet card. It contains a high tech chip which works on a specialized TCP/IP architecture known as TCP/IP Offload Engine or TOE (techies love acronyms for everything). Both Intel and Broadcom make a similar product.
This ethernet card comes with a highly specialized chip designed to handle the massive amounts of data which can flow in and out of your computer through your network- whether it be your high speed connection at home or your network at a place of business. Without this new high tech architecture, the main CPU helps process the data, which slows down everything else it should be working on. As more information flows through your network, the ethernet card becomes a much tighter bottleneck without the specialized board and chip.
You won't find this new high speed ethernet card in your typical $1,000 Dell computer. The reason is simple. It costs too much. If you go into your local Comp USA you will find that this new high speed ethernet card costs about $650. The one Dell puts in a $1,000 box runs about $60. The cost difference is mostly due to the price of the special high speed chip on the card.
According to Moore's law, processing speed doubles and the prices get cut in half every 18 months. Perfisans is in the business of making sure Mr. Moore's law lives on.
This is the Perfisans specialized microprocessor, more commonly known as a computer chip. It has been in development since 2001. $4.5 million has been invested in the development of this chip, and the majority of the experimentation was done in China, where $4.5 million could equate to $15 million in the US.
In early August Perfisans announced it had completed product development and is currently demonstrating the ACC-1001 Accelerator chip to networking companies world wide.
This is a specialized chip which is designed to be included in the architecture of an ethernet card. It is not faster than any other chip currently on the market, but it is considerably less expensive.
When installed in a desk top computer, processing speed will improve considerably. The smart NICs (network interface cards) will take up to 80% of TCP network processing overhead off network host computers. According to VP Steve Gormley “This frees the rest of the system to concentrate on pumping the payload data,”. “It's a powerful solution that provides meaningful cost-savings and other benefits to users of enterprise networks."
In short, your networked computer will be much faster with this chip on your ethernet card. The chip is so much cheaper that the Adaptec product with the TOE architecture we covered above could drop in cost from $650 to $65. If this is the case, this chip could end up on the cards which are included in the aforementioned $1,000 Dell box.
Today, after the market closed, Perfisans announced the first purchase order for its low cost accelerator chip. DBL Technology LTD, a maker of Voice-Over-Internet Protocol (VoIP) communications equipment based in Shenzhen, China, placed the initial order. DBL is an OEM for the enormous Taiwan and China communication markets.
When using VoIP technology, you are using your computer and the internet to talk over the telephone. Massive amounts of data must flow in and out of your ethernet connection as you talk. Therefore, this is one of the most ideal locations for a specialized chip as VoIP becomes more widely accepted.
Perfisans has now proven it has a bona fide low cost accelerator chip with the first purchase order. As more and more information flows in and out of your computer into your network, the need for low cost versions of these high speed chips will increase. |
