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Taipei, Taiwan, R.O.C., May 22nd, 2003 - ABIT Computer
Corporation, well-know for producing high-performance motherboards and
VGAs for the enthusiast market, has announced new products in its well-rounded
line of server boards: the SI-2P+, SI-2Pa and SI-1N. These new server
boards bring ABIT’s industry-renowned R and D expertise to the server
market, offering extremely stable, high performance server solutions that
represent far greater value in terms of price than computing solutions
based on the same chipset.
Designed around the new IntelR NetBurst™ micro architecture,
the IntelR Xeon processor with 512KB L2 cache allows multi-treading capability
and up to 4.2GB per second system bus and memory throughput
to ensure responsive access to applications and data. In addition, the
IntelR Xeon processor features 144 new instructions,
which further empowers workstations in accelerating key media, signal
processing, and arithmetic operations. Coupled now with the newly introduced
IntelR E7505 chipset, the IntelR Xeon platform delivers optimum
workstation performance with the support of AGP 8x graphics and over
1GB per second Hub Interconnect bandwidth.
ABIT SI-2P+ With the IntelR E7501 Chipset.
Supporting 533MHz front side bus and a DDR266 memory interface,
this newly introduced IntelR E7501 chipset features higher system and
memory bus bandwidth that supports up to 4.3GB per second peak data transfer
rates. This represents a 25% increase in bandwidth from what its predecessor
offered, greatly improving server performance in dealing with large amounts
of data, such as streaming video and database applications.
 The
SI-2P+ is ABIT''s latest IntelR Xeon™ -based server board for performance
dual-processor server systems. It is designed to support two IntelR Xeon™
processors, 12GB ECC memory and four PCI-X expansion
slots, in addition with the incorporation of dual-port gigabit
Ethernet LAN and a dual-channel Ultra 320 SCSI storage
interface. With these advanced features, the SI-2P+ is capable
of delivering optimum computing power, I/O subsystem performance and scalability
for demanding business applications, Internet infrastructure and departmental
database servers.
In addition, accommodating design architecture is another strength of
the SI-2P+ motherboard. With the incorporation of a SO-DIMM
for Adaptec zero-channel RAID cards and an Agilent Management Connector
(AMC) for Agilent''s IPMI compliant server management adaptors, the SI-2P+
offers a cost-effective mechanism for adding advanced reliability and
manageability features to server systems. Besides the cost benefit, this
design also facilitates fast implementation and quick time to market.
Built with optimal configuration for computing power, I/O performance
and RAS-ready design, ABIT''s SI-2P+ and SI-2Pa provide
compelling value and outstanding feature sets to dual-processor server
systems.
SI-1N: For Rack Optimized Internet Appliances
To satisfy the growing demand for high-density server platforms,
ABIT Computer Corporation has developed a new server board that targets
1-U rack mount systems: the SI-1N. The board supports the Intel Pentium
4 processor and is based on the Intel 845GL chipset platform that provides
exceptional computational processing performance and I/O for entry-level
servers. In addition, the support of integrated graphics on the chipset
contributes a significant cost advantage.
 The
ABIT SI-1N server board features a solution-in-mind design architecture
that allows for quick time-to-market for both system integrators and solution
providers. Not only is the board configured to provide efficient user
workload processing, but it is also thoughtfully designed to allow for
versatile final system implementations through its support of internal
I/O pin headers for disk-on-modules, or LCD module connections.
The SI-1N, configured with 4-channel IDE RAID, is positioned
to provide a truly non-blocking storage I/O and data protection mechanism
to entry-level network-attached storage (NAS) appliances. In addition,
the SI-1N''s support of dual gigabit Ethernet LANs with
fail-over and load-balancing capability creates an unprecedented
value to entry-level storage appliances.
Designed with target applications in mind, the SI-1N provides system
integrators and solution providers the optimal platforms to base feature-rich
system solutions and allow for quick time-to-market.
SI-1Ns: 533 Mhz FSB Performance With Cavium’s NITROX Security
Macro Processor
 Every
ready for server market demands, ABIT also now has the SI-1Ns. The "S"
model differs in a few ways. First, it uses the Intel 845GV chipset giving
it support for 533MHz FSB. Furthermore, it has two LAN ports but does
not have the added cost of a RAID controller. In addition, one of the
most appealing features of the SI-1Ns is the Cavium NITROX Security Macro
Processor, which brings low cost security to the server motherboard (SI-1Ns),
slashing the cost of security processing appliance platforms.
Cavium''s NITROX is a family of single-chip security processing solutions
with performance from 100Mbps up to 4Gbps with 1K to 40K RSA operations
per second of IPsec or SSL protocol processing. ABIT''s SI-1Ns motherboard
is to be used in 1-U rack mount appliances for a wide variety of security
appliances, such as VPN gateways, Integrated Firewall/ VPNs, SSL Webservers,
SSL VPNs, Content Load Balancers etc.
 "ABIT
has been a pioneer in bringing new functionality to the motherboard. We
strongly believe that security will become a standard feature in server
motherboards for PC based security appliances", said Edwin Lin, President
of ABIT Computer Corporation. "We choose Cavium''s NITROX Processor
as our server platform security processor because of its unmatched flexibility,
performance and price."
The SI-1Ns server motherboard supports one PentiumR 4 processor, two
integrated fast Ethernet controllers, graphics, onboard security processor
and other standard PC peripherals. The SI-1Ns server motherboard has complete
open source application level software support for VPN gateways
and SSL Webservers. The ABIT SI-1Ns has Cavium''s
NITROX Lite CN1005 processor integrated on the motherboard that can process
up to 400Mbps of IPsec traffic or 3,500 RSA operations per second. Cavium''s
NITROX processor family can switch between IPsec, SSL processing or do
both with a simple software change.
"The integration of Cavium's NITROX Security Macro Processor on
motherboards will bring affordable high performance security to the mass market",
said Syed Ali, President and CEO of Cavium Networks. "We partnered with
ABIT to introduce a wide range of world class secure server platforms targeting
the exploding VPN and secure e-commerce applications."
With high performance PentiumR processors from IntelR (NASDAQ: INTC)
and OpteronR processors from AMDR (NASDAQ: AMD), the use of standard server
motherboard platforms as network security appliances is widely accepted
by OEMs. By replacing current custom hardware designs with mass-market
server platforms, security appliance OEMs plan to reduce their product
cost while increasing product performance and flexibility.
"Bringing security to the motherboard is an exciting move
by ABIT and Cavium to drive wide spread deployment of security" said
Linley Gwennap, principal analyst of The Linley Group. "This announcement
comes as little surprise, as Cavium''s NITROX products offer excellent
performance for both SSL and IPSec applications across a broad range of
price points."
"With the demand of cost effective and ubiquitous security on
the rise, integrating security on motherboards and server motherboards for security
appliance hardware platforms is a popular trend," said Eric Mantion, senior
analyst with In-Stat/MDR. "Today's announcement marks the beginning of
a fundamental shift in how security appliances are built."
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