Comtech AHA GZIP Compression Board for Network and Storage

Comtech AHA Corporation, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Comtech
Telecommunications Corp. that develops technology for the
communications, networking and data storage markets, announced the
introduction of its GZIP Data Compression Board (the AHA363-PCle), which
allows for the highest GZIP data compression ratios on the market.

The AHA363-PCle allows network transmission and network storage
appliance customers to significantly reduce the amount of data that is
transferred through or stored within their systems. Along with reducing
latency, bandwidth and storage requirements, it also eases the loading
of precious resources inside of these appliances by off-loading the data
compression task from the core Central Processing Units (CPUs).

The system is based on Comtech AHA’s AHA3610
design – the industry’s first-ever GZIP
compression and decompression integrated circuit (IC), which offers up
to 2.5 Gbits/sec throughput via hardware, while also giving significant
power saving over GZIP software compression.

“With the announcement of this new board,
Comtech AHA has further demonstrated its expertise in the GZIP data
compression market,” stated Bill Thomson,
president, Comtech AHA. “This GZIP Compression
Board, coupled with the first-ever GZIP Compression IC, solidifies our
leadership position in this growing facet of the semiconductor industry.
Because our products are based on open standards and do not require
license fees or royalties, they are very compatible with competing
solutions while delivering the highest performance level.”

Based on the Open Standard GZIP Data Compression Algorithm, the
AHA363-PCle supports full-duplex streaming of up to 5.0 Gbps
uncompressed data using an industry standard X4 lane PCI-Express
Interface. The system achieves GZIP compression ratios at an average of
three to one.

"While data compression technology is a relatively new area in the chip
market, we see it as one that has great potential," said Rich
Wawrzyniak, senior analyst for ASICs and SoCs with Semico Research
Corporation. "With companies like Comtech AHA using an open-standard
algorithm to offer significant improvements in speed, power savings and
compression ratio over software compression solutions, networking and
data storage vendors can realize long-term cost efficiency while
providing significantly enhanced performance to customers."

Product Features:

3.5:1 Canterbury corpus compression ratio
Full GZIP algorithm compliance
x4 PCI Express Interface
Uses 2 AHA3610 IC’s
5.0 Gb/sec uncompressed throughput
Efficient scatter gather DMA
Single stream or intermixed streams
Full duplex operation
Software drivers and source code: Linux and Windows reference drivers

Pricing and Availability
Prototypes of the AHA363-PCle are available to beta customers now and
production quantities will be available in Q2 of 2008. Pricing for the
AHA363-PCle is $800 in volumes of 1,000.

Comtech AHA Corporation