K-micro SAS IP core powers new generation of Tandberg Data tape drives

Flexible IP enables migration of tape drives to SAS from SCSI

SAN JOSE, CALIF. and OSLO, NORWAY -- March 19, 2008 -- K-micro, a leader in advanced ASICs, and Tandberg Data, the global supplier of backup and archiving solutions, today announced that Tandberg Data’s new generation of tape drives use K-micro's SAS (Serial Attached SCSI) IP core, which enabled the new drives to migrate to SAS from SCSI.

“Our tape drive customers want to be able to move from SCSI and other interfaces to SAS in their tape drives,” said, James Jackson, Product Manager at Tandberg Data. “It was the flexibility to have a specialized core that was the deciding factor in choosing K-micro as our ASIC supplier for our new generation of tape drives. This project had a very tight schedule, and we were able to meet our schedule requirements working with the K-micro team.”

Joel Silverman, VP Technology Solutions at K-micro said, “As a leader in the tape drive backup market, Tandberg Data works to provide its customers with the latest technology to meet their needs. We are pleased that K-micro’s SAS IP core has helped them do that with their new generation of tape drives.” Tandberg Data needed to work with a company that has a complete IP portfolio as well as a strong design center capable of responding quickly and accurately to all requests. K-micro prides themselves on their ability to support customers with aggressive schedules and requirements, and was able to provide a level of support to Tandberg Data that met their needs.

Development of the new line of Tandberg Data tape drives required access to the IP core to manage some of the functions embedded there that are not normally accessible to the users of the K-micro SAS IP. This was needed to optimize the IP for the new drives with additional functionality and performance as well as maintain firmware and software compatibility with previous generation products. The new core allows Tandberg Data to accelerate development and release of future generations of HH SAS LTO products

About Tandberg Data

Tandberg Data is a leading global supplier of data protection technologies. Tandberg Data offers a complete range of tape libraries, tape autoloaders and tape drives (based on the LTO™, SLR™ and VXA® tape technology platforms), storage software, data media and disk-based storage such as the RDX™ QuikStor. These solutions are marketed exclusively through a channel of qualified resellers and distributors.
These solutions are underpinned by OEM agreements with major server manufacturers including IBM, Hitachi, Fujitsu, Fujitsu-Siemens and Dell and supported by all major operating systems and storage software applications to operate in heterogeneous network environments. All solutions are designed to meet the growing storage requirements of small and medium-sized organizations with scalability, reliability and backward compatibility features that ensure cost effective operation and long-term investment protection.
In addition to corporate offices in Oslo, Norway, TANDBERG DATA ASA has subsidiaries in the USA, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, Japan and Singapore, as well as branch offices in Italy, India, and China (PRC) Thailand and Brazil. TANDBERG DATA ASA is a publicly held company based in Oslo, Norway and is traded on the Oslo Stock Exchange (ticker=TAD).
For further information, please visit www.tandbergdata.com

About K-micro (Kawasaki Microelectronics America, Inc.)

K-micro’s innovative ASIC technologies and world-class design support are used in the consumer electronics, computer, office-automation, networking and storage markets. The company is an active participant in industry standards organizations, including InterNational Committee for Information Technology Standards (INCITS) Technical Committee T10 for SCSI Storage Interfaces, Optical Internetworking Forum (OIF), PCI Special Interest Group (PCI-SIG), USB Implementers Forum, Digital Universal Plug and Play Forum (UPnP), the Digital Display Working Group (DDWG), Home Phoneline Networking Alliance (HomePNA), Multimedia over Coax Alliance (MoCA), and OCP International Partnership (OCP-IP). K-micro has design centers in San Jose, Taipei, and Tokyo. For more information, contact the company at 408-570-0555, or visit http://www.k-micro.us.