IBM Supports Serial Storage Architecture as Open Standard

SAN JOSE, Calif., February 13, . . . IBM today announced it is making
engineering know-how available to the industry to support the Serial
Storage Architecture (SSA) interface as an open standard for transferring
data between computer processors and peripheral equipment such as magnetic
and optical disk drives, tape drives and printers.

As multiuser systems become more widely adopted in all areas of computing,
they will require higher levels of performance, fault tolerance,
availability and connectivity than can be provided by today's parallel
interfaces.

"We're convinced that SSA provides the right cost and performance for use
across the full range of computing environments," said Clod Barrera,
general manager of storage subsystems technology, IBM Storage Systems
Division. "It's clear that parallel interfaces like SCSI won't meet the
demanding requirements of the multiuser systems that will come to dominate
computer use from mainframes to desktops. The fact that some 20 companies
have joined the SSA Industry Association in the short time since it was
organized indicates a strong support for SSA in the marketplace, and we're
helping to make SSA an easy choice for the industry."

IBM is providing detailed specifications and engineering know-how to
facilitate the design of semiconductor chips that implement SSA -- with a
free right to use this information subject to patent rights. In addition,
IBM is licensing certain patents that cover and are necessary to practice
the implementation of the SSA interface. This patent licensing is
available for a nominal, one-time charge of $5,000, or as part of a
cross-licensing agreement. More than 25 companies supplying chips and
peripheral equipment have received IBM's SSA know-how package, which is
being made available without charge.

In an effort to help expand access to information about the benefits and
availability of SSA technology, IBM is actively participating as a charter
member of the recently formed SSA Industry Association.

The need for a change to serial interfaces is readily seen in the kinds of
complex system configurations that are becoming more and more prevalent,
even on the single-user desktop. In such systems, users may be running
concurrent applications that move data from a hard disk onto the Internet,
from a CD-ROM to memory, from a disk drive to a tape backup unit, and from
memory to a printer.

With today's parallel interfaces, a serious performance bottleneck can
occur as concurrent input/output requests from a variety of peripherals
contend for access to the processor. But with a serial interface, the
level of contention is greatly reduced, providing a substantial increase
in data throughput. Furthermore, the serial interface greatly simplifies
cabling requirements compared to parallel interfaces, reducing cost and
complexity at the same time.

SSA includes a unique capability called "spatial reuse" which allows data
to be transferred concurrently at high speeds between many pairs of
serially connected peripherals, without the need to route the data through
the processor. This leads to a more effective utilization of the system's
resources.

SSA offers superior performance. Its fundamental building block is a single
port capable of carrying on two 20 megabyte/second (MB/sec) conversations
at once -- one inbound and one outbound. An SSA connection is two
dual-port nodes each capable of carrying on four simultaneous
conversations, for a total interface bandwidth of 80 MB/sec.

SSA's dual-port, full-duplex architecture allows peripherals to be
connected in loop configurations designed to contain no single point of
failure. Low cost is achieved through the use of compact cables and
connectors and by imbedding all circuitry into a single CMOS chip.

Besides its advantage over parallel interfaces, SSA also offers key
advantages with respect to other serial interfaces such as Fibre Channel
Arbitrated Loop (FC-AL). It is the only serial interface that is suitable
for use in devices intended for attachment to processors that cover the
spectrum from mainframes to PCs. It is less costly, has higher reliability
and provides an easier migration path for systems currently operating with
SCSI.

Information about SSA can be obtained by contacting the SSA Industry
Association at 408-256-5656 or by FAX at 408-256-0595.

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