The manufacturer says . . .

ChipCenter's Jon Gabay says . . .

CAMPBELL, Calif.--March 18, 2003--Validating its commitment to accelerating the adoption of IP storage, Silverback Systems has announced a breakthrough benchmark of 92,000 IOPS (I/Os per second) per single port using its dual-port iSNAP™ 2100 (Storage Network Access Processor). This verifiable benchmark, the first by any storage-silicon vendor, demonstrates iSCSI performance for database and OLTP traffic. "With numbers like these, the iSCSI naysayers best look for a new technology to pick on. If Silverback can continue to deliver this kind of performance, iSCSI adoption won't be a question of why, but when," said Steve Duplessie, founder and senior analyst, Enterprise Storage Group, Milford, Mass. This performance metric was reached by using the Iometer benchmark developed by Intel Corp. Iometer is an analysis tool for servers that measures I/O performance while stressing the system with a controlled workload. The benchmark is even more impressive when compared to recent FibreChannel HBA (host-bus adapter) announcements of 60K–90K IOPS per port. Silverback has demonstrated that iSCSI can deliver industry-leading IOPS. "This performance result will help validate iSCSI's role in networking storage traffic," said Jag Bolaria, senior analyst, Linley Group. "This is the first time that an iSCSI silicon vendor has shown performance that can handle OLTP traffic profiles." Two other recent developments also support the acceleration of iSCSI adoption. First is the ratification by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) of the iSCSI specification in February. Second is Microsoft's March 12 announcement of iSCSI support in their operating systems in cooperation with independent hardware vendors (IHVs), including Silverback Systems. While the market opportunity and value proposition of IP Storage is clearly robust, the right kind of technology needed to unlock the potential of IP-based SANs has been missing until now. That potential has been unlocked with the appearance of a new kind of a processor specifically dedicated to storage-networking applications. iSNAP iSNAP™ is a turnkey solution in hardware and software, enabling combinations of TOE, iSCSI initiator, and target functionality, and allowing customers to focus on applications and proprietary value-added. It processes packets and full TCP/IP connections, as well as ULPs (upper layer protocols) such as iSCSI, providing protocol processing, bookkeeping, and management for all layers of the OSI networking model. iSNAP's ability to recognize ULPs enables it to accelerate NAS and other protocols significantly beyond any currently available TOE-only implementation. The iSNAP™ 2100 provides optimized implementation of TCP/IP and ULP through selectively mapping the protocol into hardware, programmable state machines, and firmware. Data-center robustness is provided by fail-over support, data and storage-network separation, and patented memory-protection algorithms. About Silverback Systems Silverback Systems, Inc., designs and markets iSNAP™, accelerating the adoption of IP storage networking. The company is based in Campbell, Calif., with a design center in Rochester, Minn. Financial backing has been received from Gemini Israel Fund, JP Morgan Partners, Newbury Ventures, Pitango Venture Capital, and U.S. Trust Private Equity Capital.

The Network is the Computer Years ago, I heard the phrase "the network is the computer" from Sun Microsystems. It was thought provoking, especially as networking was just on the cusp of becoming commonplace. These days, with servers, spoolers, Internet, and distributed and shared applications, this is becoming more evident. Storage Area Networks (SANs) are another example of how a user at a desktop machine is part of something much bigger than just the desktop machine. A couple of recent developments have pushed SAN technology forward, or at least given it some direction. First was the ratification of the iSCSI specification in February. This was done by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). This makes it more palatable to designers and customers since with a standard comes the hope of interoperability, competition, and standardization. The second significant development was the announcement by Microsoft in March. Microsoft said that iSCSI support will be incorporated into their operating systems in cooperation with independent hardware vendors. Included in the hardware vendor list is Silverback Systems, who has just advanced the state of iSCSI performance by demonstrating 92,000 IOPS (I/Os per second) per single gigabit Ethernet port. Note this was not a proprietary demonstration. This was done using the Iometer benchmark developed by Intel. Iometer is an analysis tool for servers that measures I/O performance while stressing the system with a controlled workload. This was also done using Silverback's dual-port iSNAP 2100 (Storage Network Access Processor). The dual-port solution enables 4 Gb of full-duplex throughput without a PCI bridge, which can degrades performance. This benchmark test represents the first silicon vendor to demonstrates iSCSI performance for database and OLTP traffic according to Silverback. This definitely puts iSCSI in the lead as far as demonstrated performance and capabilities. This is evident when compared to recent FibreChannel HBA (host bus adapter) announcements of 60K–90K IOPS per port. The key is how iSNAP processes packets over the whole TCP/IP connection as well as ULPs (upper layer protocols). The protocol processing includes bookkeeping and management for all layers of the OSI networking model. Silverback Systems has prepared the following paper iSCSI takes on FibreChannel Performance! to provide additional background information.

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