Adaptec, Fujitsu debut SCSI ICs

Electronic News, July 14, 1997 by Crista Hardie Souza

Bucking expectations to the contrary, the SCSI storage interface continues to gain ground with each new iteration of the standard. Challenged recently for the server adapter card space by the emergence of fibre channel and IEEE 1394, SCSI--now supporting data I/O speeds up to 80MB/sec--is said to be growing 100 percent year-over-year, and is finding a growing market on motherboards, as well.

On the leading edge of that trend, Adaptec's SCSI host adapter group will today introduce a chip designed to allow OEMs a smooth migration from the current UltraSCSI to the emerging Ultra2 technology. The AIC-3860 Ultra2 single-ended to LVD transceiver is designed to bridge the generation gap, so that when Ultra2 drives arrive in 1Q98 from OEMs like Quantum, they will work in existing SCSI server environments without causing the entire SCSI bus to default to single-ended Ultra speeds and cable lengths. The chip is in OEM sampling now, with volume slated for September at a $15 unit price.

Ultra2 SCSI doubles the data rate of UltraSCSI to 80MB/sec in 16-bit mode and increases the cable length to 12 meters. However, because Ultra2 introduces a Low Voltage Differential (LVD), it is not backward compatible with legacy SCSI, prompting some industry speculation that SCSI's days are numbered. To date, no products have addressed mixing UltraSCSI and Ultra2.

"This chip will get you to clustering and mixed SCSI environments--and it dispels the 'LVD doesn't work' myth," asserted Joel Warford, Adaptec's marketing manager for SCSI products.

The AIC-3860 has one single-ended and one multi-mode port, each 16 bits wide to support both 8-bit and 16-bit devices. On the motherboard or adapter card, the chip is designed to work along side the SCSI controller to add an extra port for either LVD or single ended modes without degrading the performance of the entire SCSI chain.

Adaptec is working on an Ultra2 controller ASIC, which it expects to introduce before year-end.

Separately, FMI is broadening its reach in the computer and mass storage world by bringing to the commercial market a newly developed trio of SCSI host controllers supporting 20MB/sec Fast-SCSI and 40MB/sec UltraSCSI.

"We have a new effort at FMI to increase market share in key logic products. These SCSI chips are representative of those products," commented Barry Marsh, director of strategic marketing for FMI.

The first of the trio, the MB86605, is an intelligent SCSI-2 protocol controller, capable of 20 MB/sec data transfers in high-speed synchronous mode and available in 144-pin QFP package, priced starting under $10 in quantities of 10,000 units. The MB86606 is an intelligent Fast-20, or UltraSCSI, protocol controller, which transfers data at a maximum of 40MB/sec in synchronous mode. It is priced at $14 each in same quantities.

The MB86604A is a single-ended transmission type Fast-SCSI protocol converter with a single ended driver/receiver designed to control I/Os. In 100-pin QFP, the MB86604 starts at under $8 each in volume.