SAN JOSE, Calif. -- The Advanced Switching Interconnect Special Interest Group (ASI SIG) today announced its 2004 successes and milestones - including the signing of its 60th member company, marking a significant increase in membership since the official forming of the SIG in early 2004. Additionally, the ASI SIG continued its commitment to the proliferation of Advanced Switching (ASI) by closing out 2004 with several product-related announcements from member companies and prefacing a spring 2005 1.1 specification announcement.

ASI technology, based on PCI Express, enables the standardization of proprietary backplane architectures. Common physical-link and data-link layers with the PCI Express standard enable the ASI technology to exploit a vast ecosystem of products currently available in the market. Industry analysts credit the innovative nature of the standard, as well as the ubiquity of PCI Express technology, to the rapid growth and adoption of ASI.

In the second half of 2004, the ASI SIG saw a significant upswing with a fast-expanding membership base. Divisions of BAE Systems, General Dynamics and numerous industry leaders such as BitMicro Networks, Emulex, Elta Systems, EZ Chip Technologies, Network Appliance, National Instruments, Quantum3D, Redback Networks and VMETRO have all signed on to support ASI.

"We recognized the tremendous momentum Advanced Switching gained in 2004 and are convinced that it's an architecture that is going to benefit the industry for the long-term," said Mario Montana, director of marketing for the serial-switching division at IDT, which recently joined the ASI SIG Board of Directors. "With silicon slated for 2005, it's certain that the coming year will prove to be the real takeoff point for Advanced Switching and major OEM adoption, and as such validates our investment in standards-based switching technology."

In 2004, the world's first ASI demo in ATCA form factor using dual Intel IXP2400 Network Processors and Xilinx' full endpoint ASI IP core solution took place at several tradeshows. Additionally, a spate of ASI-related building block offerings were introduced including:

• Agilent's ASI protocol analyzer and exerciser;
• Altera and Modelware's scalable fabric interface IP solutions for ASSPs and FPGAs with built-in or external SERDES;
• Avery Design's ASI components and peripherals verification solution;
• Denali and nSys' separately announced ASI endpoint/switch-based verification IP suites;
• GDA's version 1.1 compliant ASI IP (FPGA and ASIC);
• Xilinx' deployment of the first full endpoint ASI IP core solution

Several additional vendor announcements, including a first look at ASI silicon, are expected to surface at the end of 1H'05. Additionally, Advanced Switching is set to be a main topic of discussion at industry-leading shows such as IDF Spring, March 1-3 in San Francisco and SUPERCOMM, June 6-9 in Chicago.

"In 2004, we successfully generated awareness for Advanced Switching and gained substantial support from some of the industry's most credible and innovative players," said ASI SIG President and Intel's Advanced Switching Initiatives Manager Rajeev Kumar. "With those fundamental building blocks now in place, and strong momentum behind the technology, ASI is well-positioned to take off this year. We're very excited to demonstrate the reality of ASI and unveil a number of solutions in 2005."

Advanced Switching Interconnect SIG (ASI SIG)