AGOURA HILLS, Calif. -- Internet Machines Corp., a developer of highly integrated communications ICs (integrated circuits), today disclosed plans to expand its markets by introducing an iMPress(TM) product family of PCI Express based bridge and switch devices. The new product line, the first member of which has already been taped out by the company and is expected to be the first PCI Express product in the market, leverages the next-generation I/O interconnect standard and is targeted for bandwidth-bottlenecked applications including, servers, blade servers, workstations, desktops, storage, networking, and other embedded systems. The Internet Machines iMPress devices are based on an architecture and intellectual property already developed in-house for the currently available iMpower(TM) chipset that provides a complete solution for implementing packet processing, traffic management and switching in next generation networking and storage systems.

"We believe that the adoption of PCI Express technology will accelerate the convergence of computing and communications. With PCI Express as a standard I/O interconnect that can support the scalability challenges of 10 Gigabit networking (whether WAN, MAN, LAN, or SAN) or the emerging Gigahertz speed CPUs, system vendors can now begin offering performance-enhanced products with reduced time- to-market and development cost by relying on non-proprietary, off- the-shelf standards-based interconnect components," said Chris Hoogenboom, Internet Machines' CEO and founder. "Our PCI Express strategy will not only enable us to offer additional solutions for our traditional target markets in networking but also allows us to expand into the computing and industrial markets."

PCI Express technology uses serial, differential, low-voltage signaling to relieve the I/O bandwidth bottleneck and deliver the performance and features necessary for next-generation platforms. The PCI Express architecture provides a highly flexible serial I/O solution, enabling system designers and manufacturers to realize significant time and cost savings in converting from PCI-based designs to PCI Express-based designs.

PCI has been widely adopted as a standard I/O interconnect in almost every technology segment. OEMs recognize that using standards-based solutions for system design will reduce development time and risks, as well as product costs. With a straightforward migration path from PCI, system designers can readily take advantage of PCI Express technology to quickly develop and introduce new products to market that scale up in performance. Another key benefit of PCI Express is its backward compatibility with the current PCI software base, allowing significant savings in engineering effort as OEMs upgrade their systems by adopting PCI Express interconnect.

"Adding the PCI Express interface to the currently shipping SE200 device to provide PCI Express-based switching devices plays well with our strategy to expand quickly into new markets," said Aloke Gupta, Internet Machines' VP of Marketing. "With our history in offering the most integrated, lowest power point to point switched interconnection using embedded SerDes technology, we expect Internet Machines to be a leader in offering PCI Express products."

Internet Machines has been a strong advocate of PCI Express technology adoption. It is an active participant in the PCI Express industry groups, including PCI-SIG and the Arapahoe working group, and has been a leading contributor since early part of the 2002. Currently Internet Machines chairs the PCI Express Advanced Switching flow control and congestion management working group.

Internet Machines Corp.