The HyperTransport Technology Consortium, of which Apple is a charter member, has announced 11 new members and four new products from Cavium Networks, Nvidia, SiPackets and Xilinx. This brings the total to 51 members and over 30 products announced by members, consortium spokesperson Luis Lorenzana told MacCentral.
HyperTransport interconnect technology is a new high-speed, high-performance, point-to-point link for integrated circuits, developed to enable the chips inside of high-performance computer, networking and communications devices to communicate with each other faster than with existing technologies. HyperTransport technology’s bandwidth of 12.8GB/sec purportedly offers up to a 48-fold increase in data throughput, compared with existing system interconnects that typically provide bandwidth up to 266MB/sec.
HyperTransport complements externally visible bus standards like the Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI), as well as emerging technologies like InfiniBand. Although initially developed for high-performance personal computer and server platforms, the technology is also gaining momentum in networking and communications devices, embedded applications and other non-PC devices. Multiple products integrating support for HyperTransport technology are in development to support desktop and notebook personal computers, workstations and servers, and Internet communication devices.
The HyperTransport Technology Consortium was founded to develop, promote and manage specifications of the HyperTransport I/O link. The new members are Actel Corp., American Megatrends, ATI Technologies, Cavium Networks, Dolphin Technology, Multinode Microsystems, PLX Technology, Primarion, Silicon Integrated Systems (SiS), Tektronix, and VIA Technologies.
In addition, Cavium Networks’ NITROX Plus family of multi-service security processors, Nvidia’s nForce2 processing platform architecture, SiPackets’ SP1011 HyperTransport to PCI Bridge and Xilinx’s 800Mbps Single-Ended Slave Intellectual Property core for the Virtex-II Platform FPGAs were also announced today. These products join a HyperTransport product portfolio that includes programmable devices, cores and design services, bus functional models, protocol monitors, bus checkers, logic analyzer and test solutions.
As interest in the HyperTransport I/O Link specification grows, the consortium continues to offer Contributor and Adopter memberships based on the level of member activity and participation in the various technical and marketing activities and working groups. Upon joining the consortium, all members receive a royalty-free license to build integrated circuits that incorporate HyperTransport technology. Companies interested in learning more about HyperTransport technology and the HyperTransport Technology Consortium can visit the organization’s Web site. Consortium members are meeting in San Jose in conjunction with the Platform Conference on July 16 for the first HyperTransport Developers Conference.