CATC Delivers Industry's First '4-Wide' Support for Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) Analysis

CATC Delivers Industry's First '4-Wide' Support for Serial Attached SCSI (SAS)
Analysis
Powerful and Portable Analyzer Called 'Critical' for Testing 3Gbps SAS Devices
with Expanders 


SANTA CLARA, Calif., Dec. 15  /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Computer Access
Technology Corporation (CATC) , a leading communications protocol expert
company, today announced the expanded capabilities of the CATC SASTracer(TM),
making it the first commercially available protocol analyzer to support SAS
4-Wide analysis.  Included in this release are software enhancements that
simplify testing of "expander attached" storage.  For the early adopters working
on 1.5 and 3Gps Serial Attached SCSI, SASTracer delivers all the "must have"
features needed to accelerate SAS device and storage system development.

"LSI Logic's leadership in developing the building blocks for SAS demands that
we use test and verification tools that fulfill our requirements today, and
support us in the future," stated David Steele, director of product planning and
management for the LSI Logic Storage Standard Product Division. "By providing a
flexible analysis platform that addresses both narrow and wide SAS links, CATC
is enabling us to accelerate our protocol verification efforts for our SAS
storage technologies."

The 4-Wide SASTracer can simultaneously probe 1, 2, 3, or 4 links and supports
cooperative triggering and filtering across multiple links.  SAS wide
connections (when attached to expanders) have the unique ability to dynamically
use different physical pathways to complete a single operation. Therefore when
testing SAS wide ports, all links must be monitored concurrently to be able to
record all frames associated with a single transaction.  After recording a wide
link, CATC's software automatically groups the frames that are part of a common
operation, regardless of the physical link.

"The ability to combine multiple SAS links into wide ports will allow system
designers to aggregate the performance of SAS initiators and expanders,
increasing throughput for bandwidth-intensive applications and, in the end,
giving companies faster access to more information," said Linus Wong, director
of strategic marketing for Adaptec's Storage Solutions Group.  "The CATC
analyzer's advanced capabilities will enable Adaptec to build on our first-to-
market SAS leadership by speeding tests of our SAS solutions with wide-port
expanders and other next-generation features for enterprise computing."

In addition to capturing 4-Wide SAS traffic, the version 1.01 software release
for SASTracer adds a BusView that shows DWORD level traffic moving upstream and
downstream on each link.  This new display option provides a chronological list
of DWORDs with precise timing context for verifying SAS state transitions across
multiple links.  The version 1.01 software also adds decoding of Serial ATA
Tunneling Protocol (STP).  SASTracer simplifies testing of SATA transfers over
the SAS transport layer by showing this traffic as STP frames.

"CATC has worked closely with developers leading the transition to serial
attached storage to deliver the right product at the right time," stated James
Wright, director of Storage and Networking Products for CATC.  "It was important
that we showed our commitment to the industry by being in the forefront of
companies to provide a protocol analyzer with SAS 4-Wide support; but it was
even more important that we included the specific features that this bus
requires for effective analysis."

Built on CATC's Universal Protocol Analyzer System(TM) (UPAS(TM) 10000),
SASTracer was designed to address both SAS and pure Serial ATA development
environments.  This highly flexible test and verification system offers plug and
play compatibility between SAS and SATA links operating at 1.5 or 3Gbps. In
addition to SATA, The UPAS 10000 platform can also be upgraded to support CATC's
Fibre Channel, InfiniBand and PCI Express analyzers.

Availability

CATC's SASTracer analyzer is now available with support for 4-Wide links.
Existing customers may upgrade their SASTracer to support 4-Wide links by
purchasing a second plug-in module.  All customers with current Maintenance
agreements will receive the software release free of charge.  For further
information, please contact CATC or its worldwide network of distribution
partners.

About CATC

Computer Access Technology Corporation (CATC) is a global communication
protocols expert company, providing test and measurement solutions for Computer
I/O, Storage and Networking protocols, enhancing productivity and time to
market.  CATC develops, manufactures and markets advanced protocol analysis
expert systems for established and emerging digital communications standards
including Bluetooth, Fibre Channel, IEEE 1394, InfiniBand, PCI Express, SCSI,
Serial Attached SCSI (SAS), Serial ATA and USB. Semiconductor, device, system
and software companies use CATC's products during each phase of their products'
lifecycles from development through production and market deployment.  CATC's
expert protocol analysis systems allow customers to monitor communications
traffic, diagnose design and operational problems and confirm interoperability
and standards compliance. Technicians also use CATC's test and analysis products
on production lines and for maintenance of deployed systems and networks. CATC
was founded in 1992 and is headquartered in Santa Clara, California.  For more
information regarding CATC and its products, please visit http://www.catc.com/.

Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

This press release may contain forward-looking statements based on CATC's
current expectations, such as availability of product, market acceptance and
competition, management capability and experience, levels of growth,
profitability and shareholder value. These forward-looking statements involve
risks and uncertainties. A number of important factors could cause actual
results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements, such
as CATC's production of new products, market acceptance of its products,
competitive pressures, management performance, success of growth, profitability
and increased shareholder value. These and other factors that could cause actual
results to differ materially, are discussed in more detail in CATC's Annual
Report on Form 10K, filed March 21, 2003, its most recent Form 10-Q filed
November 13, 2003 and subsequent filings CATC may make with the SEC, as amended,
which can be viewed at the Securities and Exchange Commission's website at
http://www.sec.gov/.

NOTE:  CATC, Computer Access Technology Corporation, CATC Trace, SASTracer,
Universal Protocol Analyzer System and UPAS are proprietary marks of Computer
Access Technology Corporation.  All other company names and marks may be
trademarks of the respective companies with which they are associated. 

DATASOURCE: Computer Access Technology Corporation



CONTACT:  Rose Marr of Computer Access Technology Corporation,

408-727-6600, or ; or Camille Cox, 805-497-6400, or

, for Computer Access Technology Corporation



Web site:  http://www.catc.com/

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