Chelsio Releases 10GbE RDMA Adapter for Windows Server 2012 SMB Direct; Delivers Plug-and-Play SMB Direct Storage Routers

SUNNYVALE, Calif., Sept. 18, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Chelsio Communications, a leading provider of 10Gb Ethernet Unified Wire adapters, ASICs and unified storage solutions, today announced the production release of 10Gb Ethernet RDMA adapters for SMB Direct over Ethernet for Microsoft Corp.'s Windows Server 2012.   These high performance storage adapters deliver a converged interconnect solution that simultaneously supports all of the networking and storage protocols, as well as Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V, or virtualized applications.  

Additionally, Chelsio is announcing new versions of its Unified Storage Router (USR) appliances specifically tailored for Windows Server 2012.   The Chelsio SMB Direct Router is a plug-and-play solution that delivers cost-effective, line-rate (10Gb) performance between Microsoft Windows Server 2012 SMB Direct on the Windows side to existing iSCSI, SAS and Fibre Channel storage.

Chelsio 10Gb Ethernet RDMA for SMB Direct adapters and SMB Direct Router will be on display this week at Storage Developer Conference in Santa Clara, CA.  The demo shows line rate performance for SMB Direct over iWARP RDMA for Ethernet-based topologies.

"Windows Server 2012 provides breakthrough innovations in storage technology," said Jose Barreto, principal program manager, File Server Foundation, Microsoft.  "These capabilities give companies such as Chelsio, with its Unified Wire T4 Adapters, a strong foundation for Windows storage appliances that Chelsio will demonstrate at the Storage Developer Conference."

"The combination of Ethernet and iWARP RDMA is an excellent, cost-effective solution for storage applications," said Kianoosh Naghshineh, president and CEO of Chelsio.  "The offload capability of the adapters enables the deployment of less expensive CPU's on the server side, enabling a more efficient virtualized cloud infrastructure."

SMB Direct over iWARP RDMA Demonstration
The demonstration at Storage Developer Conference connects a system running Windows Server 2012 running as an SMB 3.0 client connecting to another server running Windows Server 2012 working as an SMB 3.0 file server.  The data is being transferred at 10Gb line rate using SMB Direct protocol over iWARP RDMA from the SMB client to the router to SMB server.

RDMA over Ethernet (iWARP RDMA)
RDMA over Ethernet (iWARP) is an industry-standard low latency protocol developed by the IETF and supported by the industry's leading 10Gb Ethernet adapters.  Since it is built on top of TCP/IP, it is routable and scalable from just a few to thousands of co-located or geographically dispersed endpoints and is resilient to any data center topology or speed.  It further can work independent of the DCBX protocol, thereby decoupling the server and switch refresh cycles.

Chelsio Unified Wire Adapters
Ideal for all data, storage and high performance clustering applications, Chelsio Unified Wire adapters enable a unified fabric over a single wire by simultaneously running all unmodified IP sockets, Fibre Channel and InfiniBand applications over Ethernet at line rate.  Designed for deployment in virtualized data centers, cloud service installations and high performance computing environments, these Chelsio adapters bring a new level of performance metrics and functional capabilities to the networking space.

SMB Direct Routers
Chelsio is delivering four new Unified Storage Routers for SMB Direct.  These are single blade router appliances to connect SMB Direct to iSCSI, Fibre Channel and SAS.  Pricing for these routers starts at $9,995 (US list).

• USR1100-SMB-E:  2 x 1/10GbE + 2 x 1/10GbE-CR connector, SMB Direct to iSCSI
• USR1100-SMB-FC: 2 x 8G FC + 2 x 1/10GbE-CR connector, SMB Direct to Fibre Channel
• USR1100-SMB-SAS: 2 x 6G SAS + 2 x 1/10GbE-CR connector, SMB Direct to SAS
• USR1100-SMB-SAS-BT: 2 x 6G SAS + 2 x 1/10G Base-T connector, SMB Direct to SAS

About Chelsio Communications, Inc.
Chelsio is a leading technology company focused on solving high performance networking and storage challenges for virtualized enterprise data centers, cloud service installations, and cluster computing environments.  Now shipping its fourth generation protocol acceleration technology, Chelsio is delivering hardware and software solutions including Unified Wire Ethernet network adapter cards, unified storage software, high performance storage gateways, unified management software, bypass cards, and other solutions focused on specialized applications.  Visit the company at www.chelsio.com.

SOURCE Chelsio Communications