Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Technology Stocks : Adaptec (ADPT) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Thai Chung who wrote (4258)	1/13/1999 9:11:00 AM
From: w2j2	Respond to of 5944

HOUSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 13, 1999--Four of the world's leading technology companies today announced the formation of an open industry alliance to set the direction of Future I/O technology development and implementation. The Future I/O alliance is creating a new input/output (I/O) standard to maximize data transfer between high-performance servers and peripheral subsystems for the next generation of high-performance systems. The Future I/O standard builds on the decades of collective knowledge and experience possessed by the high-performance computing companies involved in the alliance. In addition, the combined server marketshare of Compaq, Hewlett Packard and IBM will be a significant factor in driving the openness and broad industry support for the Future I/O standard. Balancing I/O performance is crucial to improving overall system performance and scalability. Future I/O technology has a number of key advantages over existing bus designs and alternative solutions. The areas of improvement include: -- A specification allowing for continued innovation with the standard to ensure that evolving customer needs are satisfied -- Easier and more regular performance enhancements -- Better fault tolerance and fault isolation, leading to increases in overall system reliability, availability and serviceability -- More scalable and balanced systems -- More cost effective and manageable I/O lowering overall system cost Future I/O employs "point-to-point" links that allow devices to operate at their optimum performance and reliability levels. Unlike existing bus technology that is difficult to upgrade because all connected devices have to move in lock step, point-to-point connections allow performance improvements to be painlessly deployed within a defined development cycle--more rapidly than the lengthy 7 to 10 year cycle with existing bus technology. Individual systems utilizing PCI, PCI-X and Future I/O devices are expected to co-exist in the market for many years after the first deployment of Future I/O systems in 2002. "There is a compelling need to build on existing PCI and PCI-X systems and develop a new I/O specification that can deliver scalable performance improvements, while protecting the IT investments of customers," said Karl Walker vice president of technology development at Compaq Computer Corporation. "By bringing the market-leading server manufacturers together in a unified effort, we have developed an open, best of breed technology providing customers with a clear path for the future. We designed the technology to be deployable across our entire spectrum of business solutions from the Desktop to the Enterprise at a cost and manageability level better than existing PCI solutions. The customer will be the ultimate benefactor of this initiative." "Our enterprise customers are running a variety of IT systems and have substantial time, money and resources invested in their technology," said Randy Groves, vice president of development for IBM's Netfinity line of servers. "That's why the top server vendors have joined together to craft the Future I/O standard -- to protect our customers' investments and deliver the right technology when they need it. Computing today is all about the customer and end-users, not machines or engineering specs and we understand that better than anybody." "System vendors have a very close relationship with their Enterprise customers. We see these customers, on many different levels, on a daily basis. We are very aware of their needs involving system performance, availability, reliability and scalability, and their concerns involving investment protection," said Martin Whittaker, research and development manager for enterprise NetServers at Hewlett Packard. "Together the companies of the Future I/O Initiative wanted to establish an open industry initiative that recognizes the input from multiple vendors with reasonable and non-discriminatory (RND) licensing terms that are very similar to those in many other standards. The customer needs a standard that allows innovation within a specification clear and complete enough to ensure interoperability." "It is a profound testimonial to the growing maturity of this industry that market leaders can come together to cooperate on such an important and far reaching initiative. We are seeing a strong collaborative effort with each of the companies involved contributing their best technology and welcome the long-term benefits it affords our customers, " said Robert Selinger, vice president and chief technologist for Adaptec. The Future I/O Initiative builds on the success of the recently announced PCI-X specification that was jointly developed by Compaq, HP, and IBM. The Initiative will follow an open industry development and governance model similar to that of the PCI Special Interest Group (SIG) which is the governing body responsible for the open development process that has successfully managed the PCI standard over its lifetime. "3Com, the leader in rolling out Gigabit Ethernet from the network core to the client, is working with the Future I/O group to ensure that the next generation of servers have high-performance, highly-reliable channel architecture," said Tom Werner, vice president and general manager of 3Com's LAN connectivity division. "Compaq, Hewlett-Packard and IBM are experts in servers and have great market experience. 3Com is delighted to join with these companies and bring to bear our unmatched experience and expertise in networking." "LSI Logic is very excited about participating with other leaders of the enterprise server market to develop the next generation systems interconnect, " said Harry Mason, Strategic Alliance Director at LSI Logic. "It's clear that switched-based fabrics will enable new levels of increased reliability, scalability, and manageability to provide compelling customer benefit to the enterprise systems market. LSI looks forward to applying its expertise in high performance storage solutions, and leading edge System-on-a-Chip(R) custom components, in the enablement of Future I/O technology." There will be a conference to announce more details about Future I/O on February 12th. Companies interested in joining in the Future I/O Initiative and registering to attend the February conference are encouraged to visit the Future I/O Initiative website at www.futureio.org