CATALYST ANNOUNCES INDUSTRY’S FIRST FULLY INTEGRATED SERIAL ATTACHED SCSI/SERIAL ATA TEST, EVALUATION SYSTEM FAMILY
SAN JOSE, Calif. – June 8, 2004 - Catalyst Enterprises, Inc. a leading manufacturer of test tools for a broad range of serial and parallel bus technologies, today announced the STX-230 and STX-430, the industry’s first fully integrated Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) and Serial ATA (SATA) development systems. The single-solution STX-230 and STX-430 systems provide all functions – exerciser, emulator, protocol analyzer, performance monitor -- needed to test and evaluate data storage products, dramatically lowering overall equipment costs.
The STX-230 and STX-430 provide manufacturers of data storage components such as disk and tape drives, arrays and host-bus adapters, as well as motherboard vendors, system integrators and field support organizations, with a wide range of innovative features: real-time emulation capability, real-time statistics, portability, integration, and lifetime support.
Integration, Portability, Support
The first vendor to develop a single solution with these key functions for the emerging SAS/SATA market, Catalyst developed the STX-230 and STX-430 as the most portable SAS/SATA systems available; the STX-230 weighs only three pounds, with a footprint smaller than that of a notebook computer yet supports up to two SAS/SATA links. The STX-430 occupies a similar footprint and supports up to four links. Though portable, each has the power to function as a large lab system, enabling a single source for SAS/SATA development and support operations. And unlike any other vendors, Catalyst provides lifetime support and software upgrades to the STX-230 and STX-430.
“As we talked to customers in the burgeoning SAS/SATA market, we recognized a void of truly integrated, portable test and evaluation systems enabling manufacturers to develop, test, evaluate and quickly bring to market their storage systems,” said Nader Saleh, founder and president of Catalyst. “Additionally, because of this absence of integrated solutions, these manufacturers were faced with the considerable expense of separate, often-incompatible systems that serve only one function. The STX-230 and STX-430 solve both issues and provides storage-system makers a complete, highly portable solution with a dramatically lowered cost of ownership.”
Range of Distinct Functions
The STX-230 and STX-430 can run one or more software modules supporting SAS protocol analysis, SAS device exerciser, SAS device emulation, SAS bit generator and SAS performance analysis functions. The hardware also supports similar functions for SATA I and SATA II protocols, when used with the appropriate software. Both devices support wide SAS links, out-of-band signaling, and 1.5Gbps and 3Gbps speeds.
The exerciser function sends traffic to a storage device to test compliance to the SAS specification, performance and error-handling capability. Device emulators receive traffic from a host device to test host compliance, performance and error handling. The protocol analyzer monitors all exchanges between real devices or between STX-230/STX-430 ports and devices under test.
About Catalyst Enterprises, Inc.
Founded in 1992 in San Jose, Calif., Catalyst manufactures data bus analysis and emulation tools for Serial Attached SCSI (SAS), Serial ATA (SATA), PCI Express, USB 2.0 and Wireless USB. Catalyst’s development tools incorporate a reconfigurable hardware core architecture, which can be updated in the field, keeping the tool current with the latest standards and updated feature sets. Catalyst products are used by companies in the data storage, telecommunications, semiconductor, software, consumer electronics, defense, and other industries. Catalyst is a wholly owned subsidiary of LeCroy Corporation (LCRY). Catalyst can be found on the web at www.getcatalyst.com.