Chelsio Storage Router for 10G iSCSI-to-FC Storage Networks

Chelsio Communications, Inc. announced the availability of its Unified Storage Router (USR-1000), a 10G iSCSI-to-Fibre Channel router that is targeted at mid-range and high-end enterprises that have extensive existing investment in FC SANs and require the ability to integrate low-cost Ethernet-connected servers in departments or remote locations.

The Unified Storage Router, based on Chelsio’s Unified Wire adapter technology, features two 10GbE ports, two 1GbE ports, four 8Gb FC ports, Multi-Path I/O for both iSCSI clients and FC storage, and web-based management.

In many enterprise network environments, rapid growth has increased cost of operations and critical business data and resources have spread across multiple systems and applications. The USR-1000 extends FC SAN investment by enabling integration of low-cost Ethernet servers into the SAN without requiring additional storage arrays or management costs. FC SANs can leverage IP networks to extend SAN advantages into smaller departments and remote locations where budget constraints would not allow for a FC SAN.

USR-1000 utilizes Chelsio’s proven T3 offload technology and is the only iSCSI router on the market that allows utilizing CRC Digest at 10Gb full-duplex, while using standard 1500 byte Ethernet frames. Given the recent adoption of iSCSI offload technology in multiple operating systems on the server side, iSCSI can now deliver the highest data integrity at 10Gb speed in a fully routable packet size. Using the USR-1000 to front-end or extend a FC SAN enables the highest level of data integrity and IP routability at 10Gb rates.

Atrato, Inc., an integration partner of Chelsio, is utilizing the USR-1000 as well as the S320e Unified Wire adapter family to help its Velocity1000 (V1000) storage system deliver high-speed, high-density data access for the most demanding entertainment, Web 2.0, video-on-demand, and high performance computing applications.

"Chelsio’s USR-1000 and 10Gb Ethernet adapters are an ideal fit for the V1000 storage system, which dynamically changes the economics of high-speed and high volume I/O processing," said Sam Siewert, CTO of Atrato, Inc. "The Chelsio USR-1000 is an extremely cost-effective solution to enable the integration of IP servers into a Fibre Channel SAN, and it’s another example of how Atrato enables customers to transform the way they manage their data."

"The Unified Storage Router is an excellent proof-point of the power and flexibility of our Terminator 3 architecture," said Kianoosh Naghshineh, president and CEO of Chelsio. "We are pleased to support Atrato’sV1000 storage platform with the USR-1000 and our Unified Wire adapters. Our T3-based products are well suited for Atrato’s innovative multi-tiered storage system, where very high throughput, bandwidth, data integrity and routability are required."

Atrato is revolutionizing the data management and storage markets by offering new levels of storage performance. The V1000 solves the capacity/accessibility tradeoff and conquers I/O bottlenecks between storage and servers. The V1000 high density storage system combines 160 identical hard disk drives, terabytes of SSDs and advanced acceleration features to ensure applications perform at the highest possible level.

Chelsio’s USR-1000 and Unified Wire adapters are based on the T3 protocol offload engine, a proprietary third generation ASIC that supports a wide range of protocols and includes virtualization and unique traffic management capabilities. The T3 engine transforms Ethernet into a reliable, high-speed fabric that enables the Unified Wire, simultaneous support for network applications that traditionally require different fabrics such as Fibre Channel, InfiniBand and Ethernet.