Costa Mesa, California-based QLogic Corp has launched a Peripheral Component Interconnect-to-Small Computer Systems Interface host adaptor board, which it says will support the next generation Ultra Small Computer Systems Interface standard. In preparation for what it expects will be a commonplace migration from Fast SCSI to Ultra SCSI, QLogic says its Fast!SCSI PCI Ultra products deliver 40Mbps data transfer rates, with direct connection to the Peripheral Component Interconnect bus. It is generally accepted that the current generation Fast Small Computer Systems Interface will not be able to handle the demands of most of the new, high-powered personal computers and Ultra Small Computer Systems Interfaces are likely to be standard on many computers from this year onwards. QLogic says its boards enable Ultra SCSI and conventional Fast SCSI peripherals to be mixed on the same Small Computer Systems Interface cable, eliminating the need to replace existing Small Computer Systems Interface peripherals like hard disk drives, removable disk drives, CD-ROM drives, tape drives and scanners. The boards feature an intelligent bus master design developed specifically for input-output intensive server environment. They use QLogic’s dual processor, single chip ISP 10000 architecture which provides an on-chip 12 MIPS input-output RISC processor that executes operations at the input-output control-block level from host memory, requiring no processor intervention to execute Small Computer Systems Interface operations from start to finish. This ensures that the Small Computer Systems Interface input-output processing doesn’t bottleneck system performance, says QLogic. All of the boards come with drivers for MS-DOS and Windows, including WinASPI and FastDisk VxD drivers, Windows NT, OS/2, Windows95, Santa Cruz Operation Inc Unix and NetWare. In addition, a copy of CorelSCSI Version 2 with NetWare support comes bundled with the products. The Fast!SCSI PCI Ultra Family includes host adaptor boards in narrow, wide and wide differential versions. The new Fast!SCSI PCI Ultra enables a narrow, 8-bit wide SCSI bus to support 20Mbps data transfer rates; Fast!SCSI PCI Ultra-W brings Fast, 20Mbps, and Wide, 40Mbps, links to high performance SCSI bus applications like servers and workstations, while providing input-output RISC processor performance to manage input-output queuing capability; and Fast!SCSI PCI Ultra-W/D supports cable lengths up to 75 feet for differential SCSI products at a 40Mbps data transfer rate. QLogic claims the boards can deliver three times the maximum input-output throughput available with Enhanced IDE. The boards also support real-time video capture data rates and up to 1,100 concurrent input-outputs, and will support multi-tasking operating systems. Samples of the entire line will be available this month, with production quantities to begin shipping next. The Fast!SCSI PCI Ultra icosts $400, the Fast!SCSI PCI is Ultra-W $445 and the Fast!SCSI PCI Ultra-W/D is $565.
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