SCIENCE

SAN JOSE, CA -- A coalition of high-tech industry leaders today announced the formation of the HyperTransport(TM) Technology Consortium, a nonprofit corporation that supports the future development and adoption of AMD's HyperTransport I/O Link specification. Technology leaders AMD (NYSE:AMD), API NetWorks, Inc., Apple(R), Cisco Systems, NVIDIA Corporation, PMC-Sierra (NASDAQ:PMCS), Sun Microsystems, Inc., and Transmeta have joined together as promoters of HyperTransport technology, and will now manage the development and evolution of the technology's specifications. More than 180 companies throughout the computer and communications industries have been engaged with AMD in working with the HyperTransport technology. HyperTransport technology is an innovative solution that enables the chips inside of high-performance compute devices, and networking and communications devices -- such as those that power the Internet -- to communicate with each other up to 24 times faster compared with existing technologies. "The consortium represents the commitment of its members to develop industry-wide adoption of HyperTransport technology, and to drive this state-of-the-art technology into the market," said Gabriele Sartori, newly elected president of the HyperTransport Technology Consortium. "HyperTransport technology is a popular new chip-to-chip communications technology that is endorsed by major industry players. It is designed to provide a smooth transition from existing technologies and to support the necessary scalability and bandwidth for future product innovations." The consortium was formed to promote the adoption and deployment of HyperTransport technology, manage and refine its specifications, and proliferate an infrastructure of test and verification tools to speed up market delivery of devices enabled with this technology. Product samples using HyperTransport are currently available, and other components are planned to be in volume production by the end of the year. "The HyperTransport Technology Consortium is a good example of collaboration between AMD and its partners responding to industry needs, and promoting a new standard for improving overall system performance," said Richard Heye, vice president of AMD's Platform & Infrastructure Engineering & Microprocessor Business Management. "As a major contributor to the development of HyperTransport technology, API NetWorks was the first company to have HyperTransport technology in silicon, and recently introduced the industry's first HyperTransport-to-PCI bridge chip, the AP1011. This announcement marks a significant milestone for the industry and its lead promoters, as we deliver on the promise of HyperTransport technology-based products today and address the bandwidth and performance issues of the future," said David Rich, API NetWorks' general manager of HyperTransport product development. "Apple is delighted to participate as one of the leaders in the HyperTransport Technology Consortium," said Jon Rubinstein, Apple's senior vice president of Hardware Engineering. "HyperTransport represents a great technology with exciting future potential." "By participating as a promoter of HyperTransport Technology Consortium, Cisco Systems expects to play a leading role in bringing to market a new generation of intelligent, high-performance, processor-based networks," said John Wakerly, vice president and CTO for Cisco's Enterprise Line of Business. "NVIDIA was one of the first to incorporate HyperTransport technology into the market with the introduction of its new nForce platform processing architecture. As founding members of the consortium, we are committed to continue utilizing HyperTransport technology," said Dan Vivoli, vice president of marketing at NVIDIA. "As the leading supplier of high performance MIPS processors for networking, PMC-Sierra has incorporated HyperTransport technology into our RM9000x2 Gigahertz multiprocessor to offer higher inter-connect bandwidth," said Tom Riordan, vice president and general manager, MIPS Processor Division for PMC Sierra. "Sun is committed to driving open standards and delivering the most advanced technologies to our customers. HyperTransport technology will represent the next level of bus performance and functionality for workstations and servers. Sun is delighted to be a leader in the HyperTransport Technology Consortium," said Pete Rado, vice president of Engineering, Volume System Products, Sun Microsystems, Inc. "Transmeta believes that HyperTransport technology is the right choice for the next generation of lower power PCs, networking and communications devices. By joining the leaders in the HyperTransport Technology Consortium, and cooperating together on this exciting new technology, customers will be the winners," added Doug Laird, executive vice president of product development of Transmeta. For more information about joining or participating in the HyperTransport Technology Consortium, please fill out the membership application available online at the following Web link: www.hypertransport.org. About HyperTransport(TM) technology HyperTransport interconnect technology is a new high-speed, high-performance, point-to-point link for integrated circuits, developed to enable the chips inside of high-performance compute devices, networking and communications devices to communicate with each other faster than with existing technologies. HyperTransport technology's bandwidth of 12.8GB/sec represents up to a 48-fold increase in data throughput, compared with existing system interconnects that typically provide bandwidth up to 266MB/sec. HyperTransport complements externally visible bus standards like the Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI), as well as emerging technologies like InfiniBand and 10Gb Ethernet.