SATA/SAS Port Multipliers handle data rates to 3.0 Gbps.

Press Release Summary:



Offered in 100-pin QFP package, Xstor(TM) XRS10L140 and XRS10L240 six-port SATA port multipliers and port selectors are designed to improve signal integrity and resolve bandwidth bottlenecks in data storage environments. Model XRS10L240 enables 2 SATA or SAS hosts to address up to 4 SATA drives, supports 6 SATA I/II PHYs on-chip, and supports analog front end with spread spectrum clocking. Model XRS10L140 supports 5 SATA I/II PHYs in one device.



Original Press Release:



Exar Enters Storage Market Launches Xstor Xstor(TM) Family of SATA/SAS Port Multipliers -- Includes an Industry First Solution



Devices Offer Designers Unparalleled Features and Performance for Consumer and Industrial Storage Markets

- Exar Corporation (Nasdaq: EXAR), a leading provider of high-performance, mixed-signal silicon solutions for the worldwide communications infrastructure entered the storage market with the introduction of the Xstor family of SATA/SAS port multipliers. The Company unveiled today two new devices the XRS10L140, and XRS10L240 -- an industry first six port SATA port multiplier & port selector combination. These products are just the beginning in a series of storage devices that improve the signal integrity, increase reliability and resolve any bandwidth bottlenecks in a wide variety of data storage environments including data management systems for both consumer and Small Medium Enterprise (SME) applications.

"Leveraging a rich history of developing market-proven high-speed physical layer transceiver devices, Exar is entering the growing storage market with highly integrated, versatile and uniquely positioned products," said Bahram Ghaderi, vice president and general manager, Networking and Transmission Products Division. "These new devices, and others to follow, will address the needs of high performance storage subsystems."

According to the Gartner Group, the storage systems market is expected to surpass $60 billion in revenue in 2007, with storage semiconductors accounting for $12.3 billion in revenues. Driving the need for increased storage capacity is a host of consumer, home media, and industrial applications where cost effective, yet dense storage is a requirement. There are many leading approaches to data storage deployment: Storage Area Network (SAN), Direct Attached Storage (DAS), Network Attached Storage (NAS), Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks (RAID) and Just a Bunch of Disks (JBOD). Each of these will support unique configurations (number of disk drives) and locations (internal to the system, or connected externally to an enclosure). Connecting to all of these storage environments entails supporting industry-adopted protocols including Serial Advanced Technology Attachment (SATA) and Serial Attached SCSI (SAS), amongst others. The SATA I/II specifications were recently standardized as a serial interconnect technology of choice between advanced host controllers and storage drives. The SATA II interface provides a backwards-compatible speed upgrade to the widely deployed 1.5Gbps SATA standard. Physical-layer compatibility with the 3.0Gbps Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) interface further expands the applicability of the SATA I/II standard in enterprise-class storage applications with the flexibility to mix & match SAS & SATA hard-drives.

"The Xstor family of port multipliers showcases Exar's superior analog capabilities coupled with unique storage functions that meet and exceed the SATA/SAS standards," said Sid Yenamandra, director of marketing, Network and Transmission Products. "Exar is the only company to offer these functions in a single solution, which enables small form factor and consumer-friendly storage applications."

Industry First Product and Series Details

Exar's industry-first Xstor (XRS10L240) provides the combined advantages of a Serial ATA II port selector and port multiplier implementations at 3.0Gbps and 1.5Gbps. The device delivers port selector and port multiplier functionality in a single integrated device enabling two SATA or SAS hosts to address up to four SATA drives. Today this function is accomplished using two discrete components, which significantly increases the total Bill-of-Materials (BOM) cost of systems using competing products. The XRS10L240 also supports six SATA I/II PHY's on-chip. Combining the capability to address four Serial ATA devices from one external link with support for a failover path from two independent hosts, the XRS10L240 offers an industry leading solution for propagation of high data rate Serial ATA data in a wide variety of applications. Also, in addition to the port multiplier functionality, the XRS10L240 supports the port selector functionality compliant with Serial ATA II: Port Selector, Revision 1.0.

Along with the XRS10L140 -- a port multiplier device supporting five SATA I/II PHYs integrated in a single device -- the XRS10L240 supports an industry-first analog front end with Spread Spectrum Clocking (SSC), substantially reducing the total EMI. The devices also consume under 1W with several power down modes minimizing power management and overall system costs. The devices support programmable output swing controls as well as both transmit and receive equalization enabling more than 30 inches of backplane and cable lengths, another industry-first. In addition, Exar's SATA/SAS Port Multiplier products support the Serial ATA II: Port Multiplier 1.1 specification enabling multiple SATA drives to be connected to a single SATA or SAS host bus Adaptor. Both devices support 3.0 Gbps and 1.5Gbps data rates as well as SATA compliant OOB forwarding and register compatibility with the ATA standard.

Packages, Prices and Availability

In 10,000 piece quantities for commercial temperatures the XRS10L140 offered in a 100-pin QFP package, is priced at $9.98 per unit. Additional information on this product can be found at www.exar.com/product.php?ProdNumber=XRS10L140. The XRS10L240 for commercial temperatures offered in a 100-pin QFP package, is priced at $11.98 per unit at 10,000 units. Additional information on this product can be found at www.exar.com/product.php?ProdNumber=XRS10L240. Samples of these products are available now. Additional information on Exar's Storage products can be found at www.exar.com/area.php?areaID=14. Additional devices in the storage product family will be offered later this year.

About Exar
Exar Corporation, celebrating its 20th year on Nasdaq, designs, develops and markets high-performance, analog and mixed-signal silicon solutions for the worldwide communications infrastructure. Leveraging its industry-proven analog design expertise, system-level knowledge and standard CMOS process technologies, the Company offers OEMs innovative, highly integrated ICs that facilitate the aggregation and transport of signals in access, metro and wide area networks. The Company's physical layer silicon solutions address transmission standards such as T/E carrier, ATM and SONET. The Company also provides one of the industry's most comprehensive family of serial communications solutions. Within this product offering, the low voltage and multi-channel universal asynchronous receiver transmitters are particularly well suited to support high data rate and increasing data transfer efficiency requirements for various industrial, telecom and computer server applications. In addition, the Company offers a portfolio of clock generation and clock distribution devices for a wide range of communications systems. The Company is based in Fremont, CA, had fiscal 2005 revenues of $57.4 million, and employs approximately 260 people worldwide. For more information about the Company visit: www.exar.com.

Xstor is a trademark of Exar Corporation

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