LSI 6Gb SAS Technology Adopted by Several Taiwanese Server Manufacturers

LSI Corporation announced that Taiwan server industry leaders Acer, ASUS, GIGABYTE, Inventec, MSI, Quanta Computer and TYAN have selected LSI as a 6Gb/s SAS technology partner, and are working closely with the company to apply LSI SAS and MegaRAID technology to their next-generation server plans.

"Taiwan continues to grow in importance as the place where many key technology decisions are made for server systems deployed worldwide," said Robin Wagner, senior director of marketing, Storage Components Division, LSI. "The Taiwan server industry leaders play a pivotal role in technology evaluation and development. We are also seeing the growth of a new category of market players in the ‘OBM’ or own brand manufacturer category with thriving brands, recognized worldwide. We will continue to work closely with the Taiwan server industry leaders as they develop and bring to market 6Gb/s SAS-based servers."

Today’s announcement adds to a growing list of worldwide server industry leaders that are focusing their next-generation engineering efforts around LSI SAS and MegaRAID technology to enable entry- to enterprise-server platforms. LSI has previously announced 6Gb/s SAS design wins with Dell, Fujitsu Siemens Computers, IBM, Intel, NEC, Sun Microsystems and Supermicro.

"Taiwan manufacturers supply about 37 percent of the worldwide server industry demand. Historically, the Asia Pacific region is the second wave for technology adoption, riding the crest of tier-one OEM product launches," said Colley Hwang, president, Digitimes. "Watching these important Taiwan companies as they integrate new technology into new platforms provides an insight into marketplace readiness and strength."

According to IDC estimates, 6Gb/s SAS market adoption will begin with the release of individual SAS components and devices, and gain momentum as tier-one OEMs begin widespread production volume shipments of 6Gb/s SAS-enabled servers by mid-to-late 2009.

LSI is currently sampling LSI MegaRAID 6Gb/s SAS RAID adapters and LSI 6Gb/s SAS ROC ICs (SAS2108) to select customers worldwide. The new LSI 6Gb/s SAS technology builds upon the market-leading LSI SAS 3Gb/s technology products. Since the inception of SAS, LSI has delivered market-leading products across its broad portfolio of controller ICs, expanders, host bus and MegaRAID adapters, ROMB solutions and storage systems.