Seattle, Wash. — May 4, 2004 — [WinHEC 2004, Booth 223] Alacritech® Inc., the innovator of data acceleration solutions that enable the highest performance and efficiency in networked systems, today announced the immediate sampling of the Alacritech STA2000 Internet Protocol Processor (IPP), its fourth generation TCP Offload Engine ASIC based on the company’s patented SLIC Technology® architecture. The Alacritech STA2000 dual-port TOE IPP is the smallest, most powerful multi-Gigabit TOE ASIC on the market, and is now available to OEMs for next generation servers, Network-Attached Storage (NAS) or iSCSI devices.

“Alacritech’s SLIC Technology architecture for Data Path Offload has proven itself in the market over the past five years, and the new STA2000 TOE processor pushes us even further ahead of all other TOE vendors,” said Joe Gervais, director, Marketing, Alacritech Inc. “The STA2000 provides the advanced features and twice the Gigabit port density as our industry leading Gigabit TOE in the same footprint - which is exactly what our customers are demanding for their next generation system and motherboard designs.”

“Pioneers often get stuck with obsolete architectures as new players learn from their mistakes and develop better ones,” said Arun Taneja, founder, Taneja Group. “However, in the case of Alacritech that pioneered and patented the Data Path Offload architecture, it appears they picked the right approach, especially if one looks at it from the validation that Microsoft seems to be conferring on them via Chimney. This should give Alacritech an edge in the market.”

The Alacritech STA2000 IPP ASIC combines the functions of TCP protocol processors and a dual-port Gigabit Ethernet controller within a single chip. Unlike designs based on RISC cores or network processors, the company’s patented SLIC Technology architecture and proven state machine-based hardware provide a much faster, smaller, more efficient and economical design. The Alacritech STA2000 is available in a 640 ball, 31mm x 31mm PBGA package, enabling complete dual-port designs in copper or fiber in a compact 14.5 square inches. Dual-port PCI-X TNICs and iSCSI HBA products in either copper or fiber versions in a MD2 low profile form factor are also sampling.

“As operating system vendors embrace Data Path Offload with native TOE APIs and TOE technology becomes mainstream, there is a large market opportunity with blades and other server platforms for multi-port Gigabit Ethernet TCP Offload Engine silicon,” said Anil Vasudeva, principal analyst, Imex Research. “Alacritech pioneered this technology, and its new STA2000 builds upon that deep experience, making Alacritech well positioned to capitalize on this rapidly expanding market.”

The STA2000 shares a common programming model and the mature device drivers of the award winning Alacritech 1000x1 Accelerator and the Alacritech SES1001 iSCSI Accelerator. Drivers supporting the Windows TCP/IP Chimney Offload architecture will also be available. For custom applications, OEMs can use the Alacritech SLICware Toolkit to port the SLIC Technology architecture into proprietary operating systems.

Alacritech STA2000 IPP Features and Benefits

• Independent, wire-speed, state machine-based TCP offload engine per port
• Integrated iSCSI CRC engine
• Dual GMII or TBI interfaces to external PHYs and Serdes
• PCI-X 1.0a host interface supporting up to 133 MHz
• Immediate, mature driver support for multiple operating systems

About Alacritech Acceleration Technology
As systems and servers move increasing amounts of network data, new solutions are needed to solve both efficiency and throughput challenges. Alacritech Accelerators include Gigabit Ethernet and Fast Ethernet TNIC products and iSCSI HBA products based on SLIC Technology®, Alacritech’s patented Data Path Offload (DPO) architecture. Alacritech’s SLIC Technology supplements the TCP software control plane with distributed hardware data planes to maximize data movement through Ethernet-based networks. This revolutionary architecture is designed to maximize server and storage performance and efficiency. All Alacritech products offer industry-standard failover and link aggregation.

Availability
Samples of the Alacritech STA2000 IPP and dual-port PCI-X TNICs and iSCSI HBAs are immediately available to Alacritech’s OEM partners. The STA2000 will be priced at $120 in volume. A full family of single and dual-port PCI-X TNICs and iSCSI HBAs utilizing the new STA2000 processor will be available to channel partners in the second half of 2004, with pricing announced at that time.

About Alacritech Inc.
Alacritech Inc. is the world’s leading supplier of TCP Offload Engine (TOE) solutions that enable the highest performance and efficiency in networked systems. Alacritech’s complete line of Accelerators is based on the company’s patented SLIC Technology to optimize data delivery in servers, network-attached storage and iSCSI storage devices. SLIC Technology, the basis of industry-accepted TOE solutions, ships in storage and server products worldwide. Alacritech is a privately held company based in San Jose, California. For more information about Alacritech and its products, please visit the company’s Web site at www.alacritech.com.

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