Ancor Communications Lowers Cost of Switched SANs With Entry-Level 8-Port GigWorks Fibre Channel Switch
Storage-Area Networks Get Switch Flexibility and Performance at Managed Hub
Prices
MINNEAPOLIS, Oct. 12 /PRNewswire/ -- Ancor Communications Inc. (Nasdaq: ANCR) announced today its latest GigWorks(TM) MKII Fibre Channel switch, an eight-port version priced at $1,250 per port at quantity one. With prices much lower at OEM volumes, the MKII-8 is priced comparable to managed Fibre Channel hubs. The new switch maintains the gigabit-speed throughput and most features of Ancor's 16-port MKII switch, including SNMP and Web-based management, self-configuring ports, hard and soft zoning, and multistage scalability.
As the storage area network (SAN) market grows, users are reaching the practical limits of hub-based SANs, both in size and robustness. Meanwhile, Fibre Channel switch technology is maturing and costs are falling. Ancor has accelerated that process, pricing its new Fibre Channel switch at almost half that of competing switches.
INRANGE Technologies Corp. recently signed a $9 million agreement with Ancor to incorporate Ancor's state-of-the-art Fibre Channel technology into INRANGE's CD/9000 Channel Director. Dave Supinski, INRANGE vice president of marketing, said he was attracted to Ancor's years of experience in Fibre Channel application specific integrated circuits (ASICs). "Ancor's proven ASIC technology means our data center customers get high-performance solutions for emerging channel connectivity requirements," he said. "We are excited to introduce them to the benefits of gigabit-speed Fibre Channel without compromising their existing CD/9000 investments."
According to Carla Kennedy, Ancor vice president of marketing, the eight-port MKII is aimed squarely at the SAN. "Our eight-port switch offers a dramatic, low-cost entry point by leveraging our experience in Fibre Channel ASICs," said Kennedy. "That gives customers the most performance for the least cost and provides them an alternative to a managed hub. We've always maintained that switched SANs are inevitable, and we're now more confident than ever in our position."
Senior Analyst with Dataquest's Server Storage and RAID program, Thomas Lahive, said, "Dataquest research* indicates that the industry average OEM price per port for a Fibre Channel switch and managed hub in 1999 is expected to be $1300 and $645, respectively. Storage system providers who are evaluating a managed hub may decide to skip that level of implementation and move directly to switches, as the prices come closer to converging. When price is a non-issue, users will demand the management, reliability, and performance advantages of a switch."
"Because the MKII-8 is aimed at the NT market, our number-one objective was low cost," said Cal Nelson, Ancor president. "With this product we are aggressively forcing the price parity of managed hubs and low cost switches. Our switches have come in well under the industry average of $1300 per switched port. As hubs have evolved, more features were required, but at greater expense. Conversely, as Ancor's switch technology matured, more functionality was placed on the chip, slashing expense."
Available now for OEM evaluation, the GigWorks MKII contains eight self-configuring 1.062 gigabit-per-second ports. Each port can configure itself to arbitrated loop (FL), point-to-point (F) or switch-to-switch (E) mode. The MKII includes features such as Ancor's exclusive Data Stream Facility (a requirement for tape backup applications), public loop support, and SAN fabric management.
Tom Petrocelli, Fibre Channel product manager at ATTO Technology Inc., a global developer of SCSI, Fibre Channel and solid-state products, said ATTO has been testing the MKII-8 and is excited by the boost it could give to the SAN market. "The costs of implementing SANs need to come down without sacrificing the performance and connectivity that makes them so attractive," he said.
Kennedy said the GigWorks MKII delivers the performance and functionality to support the shift to flatter, heterogeneous, easily expanded network environments incorporating SANs, compute clusters and network-attached storage. The GigWorks MKII offers optimal speed and scalability, including the ability to connect multiple switches in a fault-tolerant star topology called multistage.
The heart of the eight-port GigWorks MKII is a custom ASIC developed by Ancor and designed for optimal performance in Class 3, 2 Fibre Channel communications. According to Kennedy, placing communications functionality on the chip, rather than relying on software to manage different classes of service, gives the GigWorks MKII a highly efficient, cost-effective architecture with switch latency of approximately 500 nanoseconds -- less than one-third the latency of competing Fibre Channel switches. It also dramatically reduces the cost of the product.
Mercury Computer Systems, manufacturer of the SANergy(TM) storage area network operating system, also has been testing Ancor's new switch for use with SANs in the video post production market. Dimitri Chernyshov, Digital Video Products Marketing Manager, believes this announcement will bring Fibre Channel switching to a new group of users. "With the new low price point of the eight-port MKII switch, customers who previously could not afford a Fibre Channel switch will be able to take advantage of the MKII's bandwidth and reliability in their storage area networks. This is the jolt the video market has been waiting for to begin broad acceptance of SANs to tie together in their digital video workstations and shared storage."
Ancor's GigWorks MKII switches eliminate bottlenecks caused by rapidly escalating data storage demands and bandwidth-intensive applications that have exceeded the capabilities of traditional data communications technologies. MKII switches provide a faster, more scalable solution for moving large-frame data files among storage devices, servers and workstations -- one that can provide a common connection to all nodes in an enterprise. In addition, Fibre Channel offers protocol independence, ANSI standards, and the support of more than 100 vendors now involved in Fibre Channel product development and support.
About Fibre Channel
Fibre Channel is an ANSI-standard, high-speed, low-latency data communications technology that provides gigabit-per-second transmission rates in storage/server environments and high-performance networks. Ancor GigWorks(TM) products combine the speed and simplicity of channels with the flexibility of networks to solve bandwidth problems caused by the transfer of large data files among storage, server and client nodes in high-performance compute environments. Ancor Fibre Channel products provide optimal speed and throughput for data-intensive applications such as shared storage, CAD/CAM, visualization, data mining and file backup.
About Ancor Communications
Ancor Communications, Inc. provides GigWorks(TM) high-performance storage and data-intensive network solutions based on Fibre Channel technology. The company was the first to deliver a Fibre Channel switch, and the first to top the one-gigabit performance level. Ancor is a member of the Fibre Channel Association, the Storage Network Industry Association, the ANSI Standards Committee and the University of New Hampshire Fibre Channel Consortium to promote the advancement of Fibre Channel standards and interoperability. Information on Ancor is available on the World Wide Web at ancor.com
*Source: Dataquest, "Storage Area Networks: Hype, Hope, and Happiness," SRRD-WW-DP-9810, October 1998.
For more information about Fibre Channel technology and Ancor Fibre Channel solutions, call 800-342-7379 or access World Wide Web site ancor.com. Media, contact Aaron Pearson of Shandwick, at 612-841-6217 or apearson@shandwick.com. Investors, contact Steve Snyder, chief financial officer of Ancor, at 612-932-4000.
Forward-looking statements as defined by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 are qualified by the risk factors outlined in the documents Ancor Communications, Inc. files with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
SOURCE Ancor Communications, Inc.
CO: Ancor Communications, Inc.; INRANGE Technologies Corp.
ST: Minnesota
IN: CPR
SU: PDT
10/12/98 18:31 EDT prnewswire.com
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