Wind River Systems has announced that Intel will use Wind River’s Tornado for Intelligent Network Acceleration (TINA) for iSCSI Initiators platform in its Intel(R) PRO/1000 T IP Storage Adapter.
“Wind River’s TINA software technology enhances the benefits to begained from the iSCSI and TCP/IP offload functions on the Intel PRO/1000 T IP Storage Adapter,” said Tim Dunn, general manager forthe Intel LAN Access Division. “The flexibility of the Intel PRO/1000 T IP Storage Adapter allows companies to build cost-effective iSCSI storage-area networks over existing Ethernet infrastructure.”
According to market research company Gartner, the market for iSCSI HBA’s is predicted to grow from $130 million in 2003, to $605 million in 2005. Gartner also predicts that the iSCSI based storage networking segment will increase from a 2003 market value of $252 million to $1 billion in 2005.
“We believe that IP-based storage networking represents a significant new growth opportunity for Wind River,” said Dave Fraser, group vice president of products for Wind River. “TINA will help ensure the Intel(R) PRO/1000 T IP Storage Adapter’s ability to provide the high performance required by leading storage networking OEMs. We firmly believe that this agreement will help further the adoption of IP-based storage networking.”
Wind River’s TINA for iSCSI Initiators bundles Wind River’s TINA TCP/IP offload engine with the iSCSI protocol layer, providing network equipment manufacturers with the necessary hardware and software components needed to develop IP-based storage networking devices. The solution is comprised of the Tornado integrated development environment including the VxWorks real-time operating system (RTOS) specifically designed for high-throughput I/O environments.
The iSCSI protocol enables TCP/IP and Ethernet to be used for storage networking, enabling users to eliminate the need for specialized, expensive storage infrastructure and support staff while removing the distance restrictions associated with traditional storage area networks since the protocol can be transmitted over the global TCP/IP network. IT staff are able to use iSCSI-enabled devices to implement disaster-recovery strategies by easily backing up data in disparate locations.
