Oxford Semiconductor announces next generation of high speed storage controllers

Oxford Semiconductor has announced a complete new range of storage controllers for high performance direct attached storage solutions. The ‘93X’ product family offers eSATA, RAID and encryption capabilities and helps reduce system cost through high level component integration.

Making up the 93X family will be 9 new storage controllers. The first of these, the entry level OXU931S for USB to single SATA applications, and its external flash enabled equivalent, the OXU931SF, are already in volume production. Oxford will complete the roll-out of the complete product family during H1’2007.

Achieving far higher throughput than previous device families, 93X also offers a wide choice of connectivity variants, from USB2.0 only devices through to combination USB2.0/FireWire400/FireWire800/ eSATA devices. At the top end, the OXUFS936QSE will provide native support for up to 4 SATA disks and deliver world-class performance.

And in the face of increasing calls for greater data security, both from private and small business users, Oxford has expanded its encrypted storage offering by integrating an encryption engine into 93X single, dual and quad SATA storage controller options.

Based on a common silicon and software platform, Oxford’s latest storage controller range aims to help external drive manufacturers optimise design processes and substantially reduce time to market. Equipped with an ARM7 processor and generous GPIO structure, the 93X will also provide manufacturers with the means to engineer highly differentiated product designs.

Oxford Semiconductor’s VP of Storage Products, Mark Glover commented, “Increasing digitization of traditionally analogue media including photographs, music and video is driving an explosion in the demand for data storage solutions. The 93X product family meets present and future needs and demonstrates Oxford’s clear leadership in storage controller technology.”