JNI Employs Eight Xtensa Processors in New Fibre Channel Architecture

Update: Cadence Completes Acquisition of Tensilica (Apr 24, 2013)

New Architecture Provides 5x Speed and 4x I/O Performance of Previous Generation

Santa Clara, Calif. – June 11, 2003 – Tensilica, Inc. the leading supplier of configurable and extensible microprocessor cores, today announced that the new JNI X8TM architecture from JNI Corporation (Nasdaq: JNIC) employs eight Tensilica Xtensa processors. The Xtensa processors help JNI's X8-based Fibre Channel controllers to achieve a host transfer rate of up to 4 gigabytes per second (GB) and up to 300,000 I/Os per second, a five times speed enhancement and a four times peak I/O performance improvement over their previous generation product.

Tensilica's Xtensa microprocessor architecture provides a powerful, integrated hardware and software development environment with thousands of configuration options and an unlimited range of customer-specific extensions. The environment enables designers to carefully tune the processor for their particular application. Because all options are automatically recognized as "native" by a complete set of software development tools, developers can simultaneously tune both application software and processor hardware to meet specific speed, power and feature goals.

"We carefully studied different embedded 32-bit processors and picked Xtensa because we could configure it for maximum performance," said Sassan Teymouri, vice president of ASICs at JNI. "We believe the Xtensa processors give us a competitive advantage. Xtensa executes certain instructions most frequently used in the I/O stack faster than other processors."

The JNI X8 architecture achieves high performance and low cost in server and embedded applications by integrating two fully independent Fibre Channel protocol engines, four embedded 200+MHz Tensilica Xtensa processors per channel, 1-2-4gigabits per second (Gb) SERDES, a 10Gb attachment unit interface (XAUI), internal and external memory controllers. This highly parallel architecture provides independent control of each Fibre Channel port with four CPUs/port operating in concert to maximize data throughput at 1-2-4Gb and 10Gb speeds while minimizing host CPU workload.

 "JNI's X8 architecture is an excellent example of the performance that can be achieved with multi-processor designs," stated Bernie Rosenthal, Tensilica's Senior Vice President of Marketing and Sales. "By integrating eight Xtensa microprocessor cores, JNI's X8 architecture can meet the formidable demands of 10 Gb wire speeds."

About JNI

JNI Corporation is one of the leading manufacturers of connectivity products for the enterprise data center and the leading provider of Fibre Channel-based host bus adapters (HBAs) for Solaris servers. JNI offers a broad line of Fibre Channel HBAs, InfiniBand Host Channel Adapters, storage ASICs and software. The products operate on Solaris, Windows 2000, Windows NT, HP-UX, AIX and Linux systems. JNI customers, distributors and strategic partners include Acal Electronics, Ltd., Arrow Electronics, Bell Microproducts, Brocade, Chaparral, Crossroads, EMC, Eurologic, GE Access, HP, Hitachi Data Systems, IBM, Info-X, LSI Logic, McDATA, Mellanox, Nishan Systems, StorageTek, Sun Microsystems, TidalWire and Veritas. Company headquarters are in San Diego, with offices throughout the U.S., Europe and Asia.  www.jni.com.

About Tensilica

Tensilica was founded in July 1997 to address the growing need for optimized, application-specific microprocessor solutions in high-volume embedded applications. With a configurable and extensible microprocessor core called Xtensa, Tensilica is the only company that has automated and patented the time-consuming process of generating a customized microprocessor core along with a complete software development tool environment, producing new configurations in a matter of hours. For more information, visit www.tensilica.com.

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Editors' Notes:

• "Tensilica" and "Xtensa" are registered trademarks belonging to Tensilica Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective holders.
• Tensilica's announced licensees are Agilent, Astute Networks, Avision, Bay Microsystems, Berkeley Wireless Research Center, Broadcom, Cisco Systems, Conexant Systems, Cypress, ETRI, FUJIFILM Microdevices, Fujitsu Ltd., Hudson Soft, Hughes Network Systems, IC4IC, Ikanos Communications, JNI Corporation, Marvell, Mindspeed Technologies, National Semiconductor, NEC Labs, NEC Networks, NEC Solutions, Nippon Telephone and Telegraph (NTT), Olympus Optical Co. Ltd., ONEX Communications, OptiX Networks, Osaka & Kyoto Universities, S2io, Sony, TranSwitch Corporation, Trebia Networks, Victor Company of Japan (JVC) and ZiLOG.