RMI With NAS Comprehensive Reference Design Kit

Fabless semiconductor company RMI Corporation, supplier of multi-core, multi-threaded processors for communications and media rich applications, announced the availability of a comprehensive reference design kit for the SMB/SOHO Network Attached Storage (NAS) Market. The RMI NAS Media Server reference design is targeted at media-centric NAS applications, bringing a production ready platform for entry-level to mid-range NAS applications. Powered by the XLS Processor, the NAS RDK is a comprehensive solution that enables comprehensive media capabilities for next generation SOHO NAS solutions in a small and cost-effective form factor.

"We are excited to be delivering a comprehensive reference design kit for the NAS Market. This XLS-basedTM networked storage application reaffirms the strength and versatility of our industry-leading multi-core multi-threaded processors," said Behrooz Abdi, president and chief executive officer, RMI. "By bringing this optimized NAS application solution to our customers, we are able to drive high performance and cost-effective products for the low-to mid-range SMB market segments."

The consumer NAS market continues to evolve from a simple file-centric storage medium to a multimedia-rich home entertainment platform capable of streaming audio and video files throughout the home network. This paradigm shift requires a higher processing performance to accommodate the integration of various multimedia and networking applications. RMI’s NAS Media Server RDK is designed specifically to address these needs for the SOHO/SMB market segments. The solution is based on RMI’s XLS Processor, a Dual-core Multi-threaded SoC which supports outstanding networking performance, a rich feature set, and flexible interface options, allowing customers to quickly release a powerful solution for multimedia NAS applications. RMI’s NAS Media Server RDK is designed specifically to address these needs for the SOHO/SMB market segments. The solution is based on RMI’s XLS Processor, a Dual-core Multi-threaded SoC which supports outstanding networking performance, a rich feature set, and flexible interface options, allowing customers to quickly release a powerful solution for multimedia NAS applications.

NAS Media Server RDK Highlights

• Multi-core multi-threaded XLS108 Processor offering best-in-class performance and integration
• SATA disk interfaces, allowing up to two disks supporting a variety of RAID configurations such as RAID 0, RAID 1 and RAID 10
• Additional interfaces for external disk and other peripheral devices
• Multiple GbE networking interfaces
• On-board DDR2 Memory up to 667MHz
• A mini-PCIe slot provides simple path for WiFi or wireless modem support
• Small and cost-effective form factor
• Fully featured application specific SDK

The RMI NAS Media Server Reference Design Kit comes with a fully featured SDK equipped with RMI boot loader, Linux 2.6.xx RAID enabled, web-based configuration GUI (evaluation only), and complete development tool kit (compiler, debugger, etc.).

The NAS Media Server RDK is based on RMI’s XLS Processor solution. The XLS Processor features state-of-the-art multi-core multi-threaded technology that includes a Fast Messaging Network (FMN) for efficient on-chip communication. The XLS’s Autonomous Security Acceleration Engine and Autonomous Network Acceleration Engine technology offloads work from the CPU to perform critical application tasks. XLS Processors are pin-compatible, with single-core to quad-core designs that provide four virtual CPUs (vCPU) per core. An optimal cache subsystem incorporates separate L1 caches per-core, and a large shared L2 cache for increased application performance. In summary, the XLS Processor offers a cost-effective single-chip solution, with outstanding network performance and a rich feature set, for the next generation of scalable multi-service applications.