Trebia Networks Inc., a developer of system-on-silicon solutions for storage networking applications, today unveiled what it claims is the industry’s first Storage Network Processor (SNP).
According to Trebia, its SNP architecture enables providers of storage area network (SAN) solutions to accelerate the development of high performance, scaleable storage systems such as switches, servers and storage appliances that support emerging IP storage technologies or seamlessly integrate Fibre Channel (FC) SANs with these new standards. Trebia said the SNP is a significant improvement over the use of generic network processors in the development of next generation SAN systems because it gives OEMs a purpose-built, SAN system-on-a-chip, offering a feature-rich solution with greater price/performance and port density.
“With an eye on storage networking, we evaluated the network processor landscape 18 months ago and determined that a significant need would emerge for a storage network processing architecture designed to process storage I/O flows at very high rates,” said Jon Sreekanth, CTO and founder of Trebia. “Until now, storage systems companies have had a choice between partial solutions such as TCP offload engines or generic network processors that were not designed to meet the performance and functionality requirements of storage area network systems. Our SNP architecture is revolutionary in that it addresses the performance and flexibility needs of next generation storage networks, enabling OEMs to rapidly develop flexible, manageable and scaleable systems while maintaining leading-edge cost and performance.”
Trebia’s said its SNP architecture enables equipment OEMs to build next generation storage systems much more quickly and efficiently than is possible with conventional or partial solutions. The SNP products are designed for line cards within SAN switches, NAS/SAN convergence systems, server host bus adapters (HBAs) and storage system end points.
“Storage networking poses some challenging problems for network processors that are built for a broad range of IP networking applications,” said Linley Gwennap, principal analyst of The Linley Group. “Trebia’s SNP architecture features unique processing capabilities focused on the requirements of storage networking, setting Trebia apart from more general-purpose network processor competitors.”