Seven computer companies bundle I/O ideas

San Joes 01 Sep 99 Seven computer companies, Compaq, Dell, Hewlett-Packard Company, IBM, Intel, Microsoft Corp., and Sun Microsystems announced today the intent to merge the best ideas of the Future I/O (FIO) and Next Generation I/O (NGIO) input/output architectures into one specification to be used by server and peripheral vendors throughout the industry. A new industry group is being formed and will adopt technologies and concepts from both NGIO and FIO efforts.

System I/O will provide customers with the I/O performance they need at the price points they demand from entry level implementations to enterprise class data center deployments in a compatible and interoperable manner. The merged specification will provide a common system area network fabric for efficient support of both conventional server I/O and inter-processor communication among parallel clusters.

System I/O will provide an unprecedented range of performance for entry-level servers through high-end data-center class solutions using interoperable links with aggregate bandwidths of 500 MBytes/s, 2 GBytes/s, and 6 GBytes/s and a 2.5 Gbit/s "wire" signaling rate. As I/O demands continue to increase, system I/O will be able to address these needs by providing a compatible upgrade path to even higher performance interconnects and products.

The system I/O specification will lead to an I/O architecture that will eventually replace existing shared bus I/O. Initial products are expected in 2001. The companies also said the new architecture will provide additional system performance, reliability, and availability for servers and the peripherals that connect to them including storage and networking devices.

The new system I/O specification is a collaborative effort that utilizes the technology, experience and expertise of its many members. By building on the development efforts of both FIO and NGIO, and continuing to work closely with the rest of the industry, the group expects to release a 1.0 specification by the end of the year. The new specification will feature a channel-based, switch-fabric design that delivers a unified architecture and protocol.

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