API Launches Strategic Business Unit to Focus on Internet Infrastructure Market
Alpha Processor, Inc. (API) launched API NetWorks, a strategic business unit dedicated to high-bandwidth hardware and software for Internet infrastructure, including dense servers, networking platforms and high-speed interconnect technology.
CONCORD, Mass. — May 23, 2000 — API today announced the formation of API NetWorks, a new business unit focused on the hardware and software that service providers, hosting companies and network equipment makers need to handle rapidly growing Internet traffic. The unit will draw on API's experience designing high-performance Alpha platforms such as the UP1000 and UP2000 boards, and apply it to products built around bandwidth, density and reliability rather than raw desktop performance. API NetWorks will develop its own product line while continuing to work with the partners and resellers that already sell API products.
Why Internet infrastructure
Internet traffic has been growing faster than almost any other segment of computing. Hosting providers, content delivery networks, e-commerce operators and telecommunications carriers are all adding capacity as quickly as they can, and they are running into limits on floor space, power, cooling and I/O bandwidth. The systems they buy are judged less on how fast a single application runs and more on how much traffic a rack of equipment can move, how many users it can serve, and how easily it can be managed remotely.
These are problems API has been working on since its founding. Alpha processors were designed from the start around high memory and I/O bandwidth, and API's board work has concentrated on moving data between processor, memory and peripherals as efficiently as possible. Creating a dedicated business unit lets the company focus that expertise on a market with different buying criteria, sales channels and product cycles from the workstation and technical computing business.
Focus areas for API NetWorks
- High-density servers. Rack-optimized systems that pack more processing into less space, with remote management and front-serviceable components suited to data centers and hosting facilities.
- High-bandwidth interconnect. Chip-level and board-level technology for moving data quickly between processors, memory and network interfaces, an area where API sees opportunities well beyond Alpha systems.
- Networking platforms. Reference designs and building blocks for network equipment makers developing routers, switches, caches and other traffic-handling devices.
- Software and management. Tools for provisioning, monitoring and managing large numbers of systems, largely built on Linux and open standards.
How it fits with API's existing business
API's core Alpha business continues unchanged. The company will keep developing motherboards, processor modules and platforms for the Alpha 21264 family, supporting its partners and resellers, and working with Compaq and Samsung on the long-term roadmap announced in December. API NetWorks is intended to broaden the company's reach, not replace that work.
| Alpha platform business | API NetWorks unit | |
|---|---|---|
| Primary customers | OEMs, integrators, resellers, technical users | Service providers, hosting firms, network equipment makers |
| Key products | Motherboards, processor modules, reference designs | Dense servers, interconnect silicon, networking platforms |
| Main buying criteria | Compute performance, price, software support | Bandwidth, density, manageability, reliability |
| Operating environment | Linux and other Alpha operating systems | Primarily Linux and embedded environments |
Many of the underlying skills are shared. Board design, signal integrity at high speeds, firmware, Linux kernel work and system validation are all needed on both sides. The unit structure lets API assign dedicated sales, marketing and product management to Internet infrastructure while keeping engineering resources closely connected.
The Internet is turning into the biggest consumer of bandwidth in computing. We have spent our whole existence building systems that move data fast, and API NetWorks puts that experience where the demand is.
An API company spokesperson
Early priorities
API NetWorks expects to announce its first products over the coming months. Early priorities include:
- Defining a family of rack-mounted servers suited to hosting and Internet service workloads.
- Developing high-speed interconnect technology that can be licensed or sold as silicon to other system and equipment makers.
- Building relationships with service providers, data center operators and networking OEMs, alongside API's existing partners.
- Extending Linux-based management software for large server installations.
Customers and partners who want to follow the unit's progress can find updates in the news archive.
The bandwidth problem
Much of the performance bottleneck in Internet systems sits outside the processor. A web server may spend more time waiting on memory, disk and network interfaces than executing instructions, and a router or cache is fundamentally a machine for moving packets from one port to another. Conventional shared-bus designs, inherited from desktop PCs, struggle as link speeds rise, because every device competes for the same bus.
API's view is that point-to-point, high-speed interconnect will increasingly replace shared buses inside servers and network equipment. The Alpha 21264 system bus already follows that approach between processor and chipset. API NetWorks intends to extend similar thinking to the connections between chipsets, I/O bridges and network devices, and to offer that technology to other equipment makers who face the same scaling limits. Combined with dense, manageable packaging, this is the foundation on which the unit plans to build its product line.
Market timing
Spending on Internet infrastructure in 2000 is growing quickly as companies race to add capacity. API believes that buyers in this market are more open than traditional enterprise customers to new suppliers, provided products deliver clear advantages in density and throughput. Operating as a focused unit should help API NetWorks move at the pace these customers expect.
About Alpha Processor, Inc.
Alpha Processor, Inc. (API), headquartered in Concord, Massachusetts, was formed in 1998 by Samsung Electronics and Digital Equipment Corporation to bring the Alpha 64-bit RISC architecture to mainstream markets. API designs, markets and supports Alpha processors, motherboards, processor modules and platform solutions for OEMs, system integrators and resellers, and through its API NetWorks unit develops high-bandwidth products for Internet infrastructure. Company background is available on the corporate page.