Microsemi and American Megatrends Collaborate to Enable Innovative NVMe-oF Storage Solutions Based on Intel RSD, Lowering Development Costs and Speeding Time to Market

ALISO VIEJO, Calif., Dec. 19, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Microsemi Corporation (Nasdaq: MSCC), a leading provider of semiconductor solutions differentiated by power, security, reliability and performance; and American Megatrends Inc. (AMI), a global leader in BIOS and UEFI firmware, server and remote management tools, data storage products and unique solutions based on the Linux® and Android™ operating systems; today announced their collaboration on the development of an NVM Express over Fabrics (NVMe-oF) reference architecture solution. The innovative new solution incorporates AMI's MegaRAC® FP-X Fabric Management Firmware technology with Microsemi's Switchtec™ PCIe switches on an Intel® Rack Scale Design (Intel® RSD) reference architecture.

Intel RSD caters to the specific needs of data center operators, with the ability to efficiently scale and lower operational costs via resource pooling and leverage best-in-class storage, networking and virtualization technologies. With resource pooling a key benefit of the Intel RSD architecture, Microsemi provides the fabric interconnect infrastructure with its high density, low power PCIe switches. The combination of technologies from these three companies provides essential building blocks for original equipment manufacturer (OEM) and original design manufacturer (ODM) customers in the hyperscale data center and enterprise markets.

"As Intel RSD and AMI's MegaRAC software are widely adopted by major data center OEM, ODM and hyperscale customers, we are pleased our innovative Switchtec PCIe switches are an integral part of the RSD ecosystem," said Pete Hazen, vice president and business unit manager of storage solutions at Microsemi. "Collaborating with AMI and Intel as part of Microsemi's Accelerate Ecosystem Program supports our goal to deliver leading-edge, turnkey solutions for data center customers worldwide."

The Intel RSD implementation can utilize NVMe-oF to manage pooled storage for increased performance and efficiency, including higher resource utilization and lower total cost of operation. Administrators can compose systems from pools of storage tiers to deliver workload-optimized systems for their end users. For example, an intensive input/output (I/O) workload such as Somatic MUtation FINder (SMuFin) running on multiple servers attached with individual local NVMe storage can now complete the same operation in the same running time on the RSD implementation with a disaggregated NVMe storage model. This can lower storage hardware costs by up to two-thirds. In addition to the key benefits of improved performance and resource utilization, the combined resources of Microsemi and AMI translate to direct regional support for customers on a global basis.

"Microsemi and AMI continue to be valuable collaborators in bringing OEM solutions based on Intel RSD to market," said Figen Ulgen, general manager of Intel Rack Scale Design. "This latest collaboration on NVMe over Fabrics with Intel RSD will offer data center operators even greater business agility and efficiency." 

OEMs and ODMs can leverage the benefits of combining the AMI MegaRAC development framework with the enhancements from Intel RSD and Microsemi's Switchtec PCIe switches to lower development costs and speed time to market. Microsemi's dynamic switch partitioning technology, supported by Switchtec PCIe switches in combination with its Flashtec™ non-volatile random-access memory (NVRAM) cards and NVMe controllers, enables rapid deployment of NVMe-oF solutions, while significantly offloading central processing unit (CPU) utilization and practically eliminating system double date rate (DDR) bandwidth requirements. This leads to better overall throughput, latency and quality of service (QoS).

According to G2M Research's "NVMe Ecosystem Market Sizing Report," the NVMe market will be more than $60 billion by 2021.

"We are witnessing how NVMe-oF is quickly supplanting traditional methods of storage access. This, combined with the ability to quickly and easily compose and decompose pooled resources via Intel RSD, increases utilization therefore lowering total cost of operation," said Subramonian Shankar, president, founder and CEO of American Megatrends. "As such, we are excited about the capabilities inherent in this combined AMI, Intel and Microsemi solution for the opportunity it represents to better serve new and existing OEM and ODM customers. We also look forward to even greater collaboration between Microsemi and AMI for a variety of product lines including PCIe switches, RAID technology and field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs)."

NVMe-oF solutions are ideally suited for the hyperscale data center and enterprise markets for NVMe storage pooling applications. The device will also be targeted at applications including extending pooling to other end points, such as FPGAs and general-purpose graphics processing units (GPGPUs).

Product Availability
The jointly developed NVMe-oF solution is available now through AMI and its distribution channels. For more information, visit https://ami.com/en/products/remote-management/fabric-management/.

Somatic MUtation FINder (SMuFin) workload provided under license by Barcelona Supercomputing Center.

About AMI
Founded in 1985 and known worldwide for AMIBIOS®, American Megatrends Inc. (AMI) supplies state-of-the-art hardware, software, and utilities to top-tier manufacturers of desktop, server, mobile and embedded systems. AMI's industry leading Aptio® V UEFI BIOS firmware, innovative StorTrends® Network Storage hardware and software products, MegaRAC® remote server management tools and solutions based on the popular Android™ and Linux® operating systems continue to garner industry acclaim and awards around the world. In line with the diversity of its technology and product line, AMI is a member of a number of industry associations and standards groups, such as the Unified EFI Forum (UEFI), the Intel® Internet of Things Solutions Alliance and the Trusted Computing Group (TCG). Headquartered in Norcross, Georgia, AMI has locations in the U.S., China, Germany, India, Japan, Korea and Taiwan to better serve its customers. For more information on AMI, its products or services, call 1-800-U-BUY-AMI or visit ami.com.

About Microsemi
Microsemi Corporation (Nasdaq: MSCC) offers a comprehensive portfolio of semiconductor and system solutions for aerospace & defense, communications, data center and industrial markets. Products include high-performance and radiation-hardened analog mixed-signal integrated circuits, FPGAs, SoCs and ASICs; power management products; timing and synchronization devices and precise time solutions, setting the world's standard for time; voice processing devices; RF solutions; discrete components; enterprise storage and communication solutions, security technologies and scalable anti-tamper products; Ethernet solutions; Power-over-Ethernet ICs and midspans; as well as custom design capabilities and services. Microsemi is headquartered in Aliso Viejo, California and has approximately 4,800 employees globally. Learn more at www.microsemi.com.

Microsemi and the Microsemi logo are registered trademarks or service marks of Microsemi Corporation and/or its affiliates. Third-party trademarks and service marks mentioned herein are the property of their respective owners.

"Safe Harbor" Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995: Any statements set forth in this news release that are not entirely historical and factual in nature, including statements related to the collaboration between Microsemi and AMI on the development of an NVMe-oF reference architecture solution, and its potential effects on future business, are forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are based on our current expectations and are inherently subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking statements. The potential risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, such factors as rapidly changing technology and product obsolescence, potential cost increases, variations in customer order preferences, weakness or competitive pricing environment of the marketplace, uncertain demand for and acceptance of the company's products, adverse circumstances in any of our end markets, results of in-process or planned development or marketing and promotional campaigns, difficulties foreseeing future demand, potential non-realization of expected orders or non-realization of backlog, product returns, product liability, and other potential unexpected business and economic conditions or adverse changes in current or expected industry conditions, difficulties and costs of protecting patents and other proprietary rights, inventory obsolescence and difficulties regarding customer qualification of products. In addition to these factors and any other factors mentioned elsewhere in this news release, the reader should refer as well to the factors, uncertainties or risks identified in the company's most recent Form 10-K and all subsequent Form 10-Q reports filed by Microsemi with the SEC. Additional risk factors may be identified from time to time in Microsemi's future filings. The forward-looking statements included in this release speak only as of the date hereof, and Microsemi does not undertake any obligation to update these forward-looking statements to reflect subsequent events or circumstances.

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SOURCE Microsemi Corporation; AMI