Special Section: SNW, Fall 2004 - Highlights From The SNW Floor:

INDUSTRY LEADERS SHOW SIMPLIFIED TIERED STORAGE SOLUTIONS AT SNW

Four leading technology companies came together at Storage Networking World (SNW) 2004 to discuss the benefits and challenges of simplified serial interface tiered storage solutions in Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) and Fibre Channel environments. HP, Intel, LSI Logic and Seagate also showcased multiple product demonstrations during the conference.

Using the theme "Project Simplify," the four companies executed product examples that streamline the storage infrastructure to reduce costs, ease management and improve performance. Three simplified tiered storage approaches -- one each for Serial Attached SCSI storage infrastructures, Fibre Channel infrastructures and server infrastructures -- demonstrated efficient integration of multiple storage classes.

"These are the companies that are driving industry adoption of serial solutions as the next generation storage interface for entry level and mission-critical systems and we are pleased to help showcase their innovations at Storage Networking World 2004," said Paul Perez, vice president of storage, networking and infrastructure for Industry Standard Servers at HP.

The technology vendors who participated in Project Simplify showcased their respective products, services and solutions at the show, as below:

• LSI Logic: LSI Logic showcased a Serial Attached SCSI tiered storage solution using its SAS3442X HBA based on the SAS1068 8-port controller. The demonstration was run on an HP server and included a storage enclosure with a mix of Seagate Cheetah 15K SAS high performance disc drives and NL35 Series SATA nearline disc drives. The flexibility to attach both SAS and Serial ATA (SATA) disc drives within the same storage system, as well as the scalability of SAS technology, was the highlight of this demonstration. Separately, the company will also demonstrate its iSCSI RAID storage adapter and its 4G Fibre Channel host bus adapter cards.

• Seagate: Seagate demonstrated a tiered storage solution utilizing 100 percent native Fibre Channel disc storage, including Cheetah 15K high performance disc drives and NL35 Series FC nearline disc drives, all within a single system. The demonstration, which also included an HP EVA 3000 storage system, HP Data Protector software and LSI Logic 7202XP host bus adapter cards, highlighted the performance and management benefits of blending FCbased online and nearline storage in a single solution.

• Intel: The LSI Logic MegaRAID 8-port SAS storage adapter featuring the Intel IOP332 I/O processor was shown with Seagate SAS drives inside a PCI Express server, which showcased the adapter's ability to operate with both SAS and SATA devices in an expander-based environment.

• HP: HP demonstrated both missions critical and entry-level storage solutions utilizing SATA and Fibre Channel drives. The demonstrations included a variety of HP hardware including an HP storage system, HP XP12000 and a number of HP MSA boxes.

About LSI Logic

LSI Logic is recognized worldwide as a leader in developing storage industry technologies, products and standards, and is the only company delivering first-to-market storage products across all critical interfaces. From controller and expander ICs to RAID storage adapters, host bus adapters (HBAs) and management software, LSI Logic is at the core of the storage business at every critical level. LSI Logic was a founding member of the Serial Attached SCSI Working Group. For more information on LSI Logic Storage, please visit: lsilogic.com/storage.