Leading Enterprise Computing Companies Form Group to Promote New
Input/Output Server Specification
SANTA CLARA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 7, 1999--
Intel, Dell, Hitachi, NEC, Siemens, Sun Microsystems Chartered with Developing, Implementing Industrywide
Next Generation I/O Specification for High Performing Servers
Six leading global enterprise computing companies are forming an industry group to develop and implement a
new open I/O architecture for optimizing information flow and reliability between mission critical servers and their
communication, networking, storage and processing subsystems.
The architecture specification is based on the Next Generation Input/Output (NGIO) architecture, which has been
under development by a group of companies led by Intel Corporation for the past two years.
Intel, Dell Computer Corporation, Hitachi Limited, NEC Corporation, Siemens Information Communication
Network, Inc. and Sun Microsystems, Inc. are forming the NGIO Industry Forum and will serve on the steering
committee.
The NGIO Industry Forum, with broad industry participation, will ensure that the architecture is robust, broadly
adopted and available for products beginning in 2000. A founding principle of the Forum is that contributions to
the core specification should be licensed on a mutual royalty-free basis.
In addition to the steering committee members, several companies have been involved with developing NGIO,
including Adaptec Inc., Fujitsu Ltd., EMC Corp., GigaNet Inc., LSI Logic Corp., Nortel Networks, Qlogic Corp. and
Sequent Computer System, Inc. Membership to the NGIO Forum is open to the industry, with more information
available at www.ngioforum.org.
Steering committee members will each have an equal vote. The committee plans to create working groups
involving representatives from across the industry to address the evolution of the architecture, implementation of
the specification and marketing of the initiative.
Unveiled in November, the NGIO architecture is designed to deliver new levels of reliability, scalability, and
flexibility for data flow in servers -- vital in developing a complete and robust Internet connected environment.
NGIO provides for a direct, high-performance and expandable interface between main memory and the
controller devices for I/O services such as network communication, storage and processing subsystems.
NGIO is designed to complement existing peripheral interconnect approaches like SCSI, Fibre Channel and
Ethernet. NGIO is also expected to coexist with PCI in the foreseeable future.
"As e-commerce grows and Intel continues to drive microprocessor performance, Internet-class servers
supporting mission critical applications will demand extreme levels of reliability and scalability. As an industry,
we need to ensure that server I/O architecture can keep pace," said John Miner, vice president and general
manager of Intel's Enterprise Server Group. "The NGIO architecture is designed to meet these demands to
maintain a balanced and robust system, and the benefit of being supported by the formation of an open industry
forum and Intel's goal that contributions to the core specification be available on a mutual royalty free basis."
"Dell's strength of incorporating superior industry-standard technologies into the design of our PowerEdge
server and PowerVault storage products is a key reason why customers have made us the fastest-growing
server company in the industry," said Michael Lambert, senior vice president, Enterprise Systems Group, Dell
Computer. "We view the NGIO architecture as a critically important innovation for the future of the high-volume
Intel-based server platform. Dell has been part of creating the architecture since the outset, and we look forward
to advancing its acceptance as a member of the steering committee and an implementer of the technology."
"Hitachi has long been a leader in the mission critical market, dedicated to providing robust and reliable
systems. Our involvement in the NGIO Industry Forum signifies Hitachi's devotion to ensure that we continue to
provide the best total system solutions for our customers as Intel(R) Architecture moves into the enterprise,"
said Mr. Toshiakira Ikeda, general manager, Strategic Business Development Division, Information Group,
Hitachi, Ltd. "This is a critical strategic move to apply our proven leadership in enterprise-class server I/O to the
task of enhancing industry-standard server system I/O architecture. We are very confident that we can deliver an
I/O architecture that meets our customer's expectations through this effort."
"NEC has a proven track record of leading the development and application of important new industry standards.
Our early leadership with VI Architecture and I2O Architecture-based products is yielding tangible customer
benefit today," said Kazuhiko Kobayashi, associated senior vice president, NEC. "We're excited to be continuing
that leadership through the NGIO Industry Forum, and look forward to delivering the products that will make the
promise of the architecture real for customers."
"Siemens is a world leader in providing highly scalable and reliable communications and data processing
platforms," said Volker Dulich, vice president Computer Systems Group, Siemens Information Communication
Products. "It's important to us to be able to evolve our offerings in a way that allows them to take full advantage of
the benefits of a horizontal, highly competitive computer industry. NGIO architecture provides that framework. Our
goal is to apply our proven end-to-end systems expertise to the important task of delivering NGIO Architecture
through products as quickly as possible."
"As the first company to implement 64-bit 66MHz PCI in production systems, Sun has been a strong advocate of
volume, high performance, open standard I/O implementations," said Rich Green, vice president of Sun
Microsystems, Inc.
"NGIO has the potential to go significantly beyond PCI in Solaris-based SPARC and Intel systems to meet the
reliability and performance demands of future applications. Sun is excited to work with industry leaders such as
Intel to help develop and support the NGIO specification."
CONTACT: Intel Corporation
Bill Kircos, 408/765-9919
bill.kircos@intel.com
or
Dell Corporation
Letty Ledbetter, 512/723-781
letty_ledbetter@dell.com
or
Hitachi, Ltd.
Mr. Yukihiko Ohashi, +81-3-5471-8910
y-ohashi@comp.hitachi.co.jp
or
NEC Corporation
Y. Chris Shimizu, +81-3-3798-6511
Chris_shimizu@HO-PRP.ccgw.nec.co.jp
or
Siemens AG
Ms. Andrea Stercken, +49-89-636-47005
Andrea.Stercken@mch6.siemens.de
or
Sun Microsystems, Inc.
Cindee Mock, 650/786-8323
cindee.mock@sun.com
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