Compression board unburdens web server CPUs

Edited by the Electronicstalk editorial team Feb 6, 2004

The AHA361-PCIX is a PCI-X plug-in card that adds GZIP compression to Internet data streams and supports GZIP/Deflate compression for web host applications at up to 1.2Gbit/s.

The AHA361-PCIX is a PCI-X plug-in card that adds GZIP compression to Internet data streams and supports GZIP/Deflate compression for web host applications at up to 1.2Gbit/s.

By performing compression, valuable bandwidth is efficiently used when sending files over the Internet.

GZIP compression is a standardised part of the HTTP protocol and all modern web browsers have built-in GZIP decompression software.

Comtech AHA's GZIP compression hardware performs lossless compression at rates several orders of magnitude faster than any GZIP compression software or hardware currently available on the market.

As web servers are loaded at or near capacity, GZIP compression software can overload web servers and result in significant latency.

Comtech AHA's GZIP compression hardware offloads bandwidth-consuming compression software from the web server and frees up valuable server CPU resources.

The end results are faster download times of complicated dynamic web files and decreased bandwidth consumption.

End users will benefit from having faster download times and customers will save money by maximising the use of their existing web server infrastructure and avoiding expensive link upgrades.

The AHA361-PCIX GZIP board can accept any data type including HTML, JavaScript, XML, Office documents, Executables (.exe), Cascade Style Sheets (CSS), PDF documents and PowerPoint presentations.

The AHA361-PCIX board features an open standard compression algorithm (GZIP/Deflate) and uses patented hardware compression integrated circuits.

Uncompressed data is sent to the board via the PCI-X edge card interface, compressed, and the output is transferred back to the host over the same PCI-X interface.

Target markets for the AHA361-PCIX include manufacturers of storage area network servers, web servers, web accelerators and web traffic appliances including load balancers, firewall VPN servers and integrated routers/switches.

Pricing starts at $750 per unit with quantity discounts available for larger volumes.