AMD has unveiled a storage controller that can be embedded across entry-level networked storage systems to enhance storage device compatibility and accelerate product development.
The new AMD Socket AM2 processor-based Storage Bridge Bay Reference Design Kit is designed to help lower power, boost IO bandwidth and improve data management within storage devices for small- to mid-size companies.
The design kit will soon be delivered to OEMs for testing, and should be embedded into storage devices during by the end of the second quarter, says Dave Jessel, storage segment manager for AMD.
As the rate of corporate data growth squeezes datacentre efficiency, storage arrays will have to unload data management processes from overtaxed servers. The new controller can be used to build storage arrays capable of assuming server functions, says Mark Hall, chairman of the Storage Bridge Bay Marketing subgroup for the SBB Working group.
Hall says the AMD kit can enable applications such as "unified storage services, encryption, compression and de-duplication" to be moved directly storage devices from servers.