Nethra Imaging has released new networking and storage products, FastPipe 10GbE transport adapter and Azores 100 2U solid state storage.
The company said that the new products leverage the ExpEther technology proposed by NEC in 2006 and are productised as integrated circuit devices jointly by Nethra and NEC. ExpEther offers network and storage convergence across standard ethernet layer 2 switches. It interconnects PCI-express compliant I/O devices such as SATA, USB, FC and graphics adapters.
The FastPipe transport adapter enables PCIe bus extension over 10GbE Layer 2 fiber moving PCIe switching functions into the cloud. It ensures data transport delivered with low-latency, low CPU overhead, high throughput, and extended operational flexibility due to IO virtualisation. Former multi-hop, backplane configurations become single-hop cloud-based transactions with negligible latency, the company claims.
According to Nethra, the Azores-100 solid state storage, utilising the FastPipe adapter, enables low-latency, high-bandwidth, remotely attached bulk storage to perform as though locally attached. It leverages the built-in capabilities of ExpEther in low-latency, high bandwidth data transfer coupled with network convergence around layer 2 ethernet infrastructure.
The Azores-100 series delivers up to 3.2 gigabytes per second read bandwidth in a 2U high rack-mounted unit consuming less than 250 Watts. The FastPipe adapter when used in advanced storage service enables multiple storage protocols including fibre channel SAN storage to be moved onto a unified layer 2 ethernet interconnect using off-the-shelf ethernet switch technology, Nethra said.
Frederic Rick Carlson, CTO of Nethra, said: “The ability to converge multiple protocols onto layer 2 ethernet with the FastPipe adapter, combined with the availability of value-priced 10G switches from multiple vendors is a key operating cost attribute in diverse data centers, delivering value directly to the bottom line of end-users.”
