LSI Logic First to Sample PCI Express Serial Attached SCSI Controllers

• Key OEM customers now receiving PCI Express to 4- and 8-port SAS controllers optimized for system performance
• Industry-leading performance breaks the 150,000 IO/s and the 1500MB/s barriers

MILPITAS, Calif. - October 21, 2005 - LSI Logic Corporation (NYSE: LSI) today announced that its next-generation PCI Express Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) controllers are now sampling to key OEM customers.  The industrys first PCI Express to 3Gb/s SAS controllers, the 4-port LSISAS1064E and 8-port LSISAS1068E, extend LSI Logic technology and market leadership.  This unique solution delivers extremely high IO/s performance versus Ultra320 SCSI and previous PCI-X based SAS products.

"Were delivering the industrys two most compelling technologies - SAS and PCI Express, said Robin Wagner, director of product marketing for the LSI Logic Storage Components Group.  These controllers eliminate any I/O bus bottlenecks on the host connect side.  By providing OEMs with product in compliance with the PCI Express 1.0a specification, lab testing and developmental programs can move forward quickly.  LSI Logic is known for driving product implementation through the use of the latest industry standard technologies.  SAS and PCI Express enable better performance, scalability and flexibility.

LSI Logic provides a complete, proven-interoperable portfolio of SAS products, from controller ICs, industry-leading expanders and Host Bus Adapters (HBAs) to SAS RAID-on-Chip solutions, MegaRAID adapter cards and RAID on Motherboard (ROMB) solutions.  The companys SAS controller ICs command over 80% market share.

Both the LSISAS1064E and LSISAS1068E support 8 PCI Express lanes at 2.5Gb/s, for an aggregate bandwidth of up to 2GB/s (4GB/s full duplex).  The controllers can be configured as x8, x4, and x1 PCI Express devices, with the ability to auto-negotiate among those link widths.  Designed to address the increasing bandwidth and flexibility demands of processor and memory subsystems and deliver optimal performance, PCI Express retains legacy PCI compatibility, enabling the LSISAS1064E and LSISAS1068E to provide users with investment protection and ease of development migration.  Both are based on the LSI Logic Fusion-MPT (Message Passing Technology) architecture to speed the OEM development cycle.

LSI Logic lab tests have demonstrated the following SAS1068E performance points:

• Over 150,000 IOPs at 8KB and smaller, read or write I/Os
• Over 1500 MB/s at 16KB and larger Read I/Os
• Over 1400 MB/s at 16KB and larger Write I/Os

The SAS1064E and SAS1068E represent an excellent balance between data throughput and I/O management capability, to maximize system I/O performance. No other vendor offers this combination of large and small I/O capability. The controllers also provide 1.5 and 3Gb/s SAS and SATA data transfer rates per port.  In addition, they support integrated RAID designed for systems requiring redundancy and high-availability, but not needing a full featured RAID implementation.

SAS technology enables SCSI interface solutions beyond Ultra320 to the next-generation Direct Attach Storage (DAS) enterprise server and high-performance workstation markets, while retaining device-level backward compatibility. The SAS standard defines a device-level enterprise storage interface incorporating SCSI command sets, serial point-to-point interconnections, dual porting, increased addressability and the ability to scale to small form factors. As the SAS physical layer is compatible with Serial ATA, users have the choice of populating their systems with SAS or SATA hard disk drives, or a combination of both.  

URLs to Extend Your Product Knowledge and Understanding
LSI Logic storage products    http://lsilogic.com/storage
LSI Logic SAS products and technology  http://lsilogic.com/sas
LSI Logic PCI Express products and technology http://lsilogic.com/pciexpress

About LSI Logic Corporation

LSI Logic Corporation (NYSE: LSI) focuses on the design and production of high-performance semiconductors for Consumer, Communications and Storage applications that access, interconnect and store data, voice and video. LSI Logic engineers incorporate reusable, industry-standard intellectual property building blocks that serve as the heart of leading-edge systems. LSI Logic serves its global OEM and channel customers with Platform ASICs, standard-cell ASICs, standard products, host bus adapters, RAID controllers and software. In addition, the company supplies storage network solutions for the enterprise. LSI Logic is headquartered at 1621 Barber Lane, Milpitas, CA 95035. http://www.lsilogic.com