IRVINE, Calif., October 31, 2006 — The industry’s first Fibre Channel interface to comply with the VITA 42.3 standard (XMC with PCI Express host interface) has been released by Critical I/O, the leading manufacturer of Fibre Channel interfaces for embedded systems with more than 30,000 units shipped. The new XMC interface provides 4 Gbit/sec Fibre Channel connectivity to PCI Express-based systems. The combination of the XMC hardware and its extensive supporting drivers and libraries are engineered for performance-driven networking and storage applications.
The Critical I/O Model FCA2440 is the highest performance interface available for embedded computing. PCI Express eliminates the performance limitations imposed by the PCI data bus, providing sustained data rates of 1500 Mbytes/sec, 10 usec RDMA data transfers, and up to 300,000 IOPS (I/O operations per second).
According to Jack Staub, chief executive officer of Critical I/O, “The new XMC standard with multi-lane PCI Express (VITA 42.3) will drive system performance to new heights. It also allows embedded systems to remain in lockstep with commercial enterprise-computing markets where PCI Express fabrics are rapidly displacing the legacy PCI data bus. Of course, the PCI based PMC form-factor will be in demand for years to come and Critical I/O will offer both PMC and XMC. But clearly XMC has substantial performance advantages; for example, our 4Gb Fibre Channel XMC achieves a 50 percent higher throughput than our equivalent 4Gb PMC with a 33 percent reduction in latency. That’s quite significant and is entirely due to PCI Express’s superior performance characteristics over PCI.”
While the Model FCA2440 employs a different interface to the host processor it is still 100% software compatible with the Critical I/O’s PMC Fibre Channel interfaces. Therefore, customers do not have to rewrite software or learn new technology and can immediately leverage the extensive offering of mature drivers and libraries refined by Critical I/O over nine years and six product generations.
Staub added, “We’ve invested over 50 man-years developing out Fibre Channel software so our customers can quickly integrate our products without wasting time debugging poorly written and inadequate drivers. And it is the superior performance, capability, and ease of use of our drivers that explains why more embedded systems designers choose Critical I/O than any other Fibre Channel provider.”
The FCA2440 XMC is part of Critical I/O’s sixth generation of Fibre Channel interfaces. This hardware interface dissipates only five watts but provides two independent 4Gb Fibre Channel ports, 4-lane PCI Express host interface, and extensive integrated hardware BIT. It is supported by a full complement of library and drivers for VxWorks, Linux and Windows. It is compatible with X86, PPC, and DSP-based embedded processor boards.
Contact Critical I/O for pricing and availability of the FCA2440 Fibre Channel XMC.
About Critical I/O
Critical I/O, headquartered in Irvine, California, is the leading provider of high-performance interfaces for embedded, avionics and military applications. The company has shipped more than 30,000 Fibre Channel interfaces into the embedded systems marketplace and with nearly a decade of progressive development and testing, has now delivered its sixth generation of advanced Fibre Channel technology. Critical I/O has also brought true high performance Ethernet interfaces to the real-time and embedded systems marketplace. With its unique Silicon Stack Ethernet architecture, Critical I/O is leading the way in enabling high performance Ethernet-based systems to compete, for the first time, with costly proprietary fabrics. Known worldwide for its technical expertise, software support, and its ability to leverage state of the art commercial technology, Critical I/O focuses entirely on the network requirements of high performance embedded systems. For more information visit www.criticalio.com
