Potentially complicating JNI's thrust to be a stronger HBA player is that chipmaker Applied Micro Circuits Corp. (AMCC) (Nasdaq: AMCC) last month announced its intention to acquire JNI for $190 million (see AMCC Looks to Buy JNI).
AMCC will try to exploit the JNI technology for embedded applications, thereby augmenting its addressable market rather than narrowing it, Brotherton claims. "They bring financial clout," he says. "And we, as a relatively small player, had not focused on selling our selling silicon to the target side."
Besides price, JNI says its ZStar HBAs provide unmatched ease of use. EZ Fibre for Windows is a Java-based application that provides auto-configuration capabilities, as well as LUN discovery and mapping. In addition, the software also incorporates a performance-tuning feature to optimize I/O performance based on server application environment, including settings for streaming media (larger block sizes with sustained I/O), for transactional applications (smaller blocks with variable I/O), or to minimize host CPU utilization.
The JNI ZStar Fibre Channel HBAs will be available through resellers and distributors starting this month. By the end of the year, JNI is scheduled to have a Linux driver to work with the ZStar HBAs.
Todd Spangler, US Editor, Byte and Switch
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