Compression plug-in features faster datarates

Edited by the Electronicstalk editorial team Apr 23, 2004

The AHA361-PCIX is a PCI-X plug-in card that adds GZIP compression to Internet data streams and supports GZIP compression with data transfer rates up to 2.0Gbit/s.

The AHA361-PCIX is a PCI-X plug-in card that adds GZIP compression to Internet data streams and supports GZIP compression with data transfer rates up to 2.0Gbit/s.

The production-ready product is faster than the prototype AHA361-PCIX card, announced in February 2004, that provided 1.2Gbit/s data transfer rates.

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 card can also be used to create proprietary, point-to-point communication links.

Decompression is a less intensive function and can be accomplished in software with very little increase in system load.

In conjunction with compression performed by the AHA361-PCIX card, a full-duplex compressed link can be established easily.

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 are 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.

The AHA361-PCIX board is field reprogrammable, enabling simple firmware updates without removing or powering down the system.

Target markets for the AHA361-PCIX include manufacturers of storage area network servers, web servers, web traffic appliances (including load balancers, firewall VPN servers, SSL accelerators, and other web acceleration devices) and proprietary point-to-point links.

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