Aarohi's move comes as major storage switch makers roll out competing platforms that promise easier SAN management by way of new traffic-management silicon and software.

A variety of server and storage switch and array makers are promoting homegrown application programming interfaces for bringing storage-management code to their platforms. Meanwhile, a T11.5 standards group is hammering out an API that could plow the way for interoperable software across the competing systems. The API could be available as early as June.

Fibre Channel switch maker McData Corp. (Broomfield, Colo.) will use Aarohi's ASIC in a switch slated to ship in the middle of next year. Aarohi claims at least three other unnamed design wins for the chip.

The two-year-old San Jose, Calif., startup this week will also announce that five providers of storage-management software-Alacritus, FalconStor, Incipient, Kashya and StoreAge Networking Technologies-will port their applications to the Aarohi FabricStream ASIC. Missing from the list is Veritas Software Corp., a widely regarded independent storage software company. Aarohi promised faster performance and lower cost than competing solutions. The company provides its ASIC on a line card or as standalone chip with a full software stack and API.

Aarohi and McData are playing catch-up with leading Fibre Channel switch maker Brocade Communications Systems Inc., which announced in March seven software companies-including most of those in Aarohi's partner list-backing its Fabric Application Platform. That system, which uses a 16-port Motorola PowerPC and Brocade's XPath operating system, is set for launch by the end of the year.

In addition, Brocade is porting Veritas' volume-management application to its platform. Hewlett-Packard Co. has also said it will supply its VersaStor storage-virtualization software on the Brocade platform.

This week, Cisco, a newcomer to the Fibre Channel switch world (see www.eetimes.com/story/OEG20020902S0021), will announce its so-called network-hosted storage application modules. The line cards will slot into switches made by Andiamo Systems Inc., Cisco's storage-networking operation. IBM will announce this week that it is porting its SAN volume controller software, used in its Shark storage arrays, to the Cisco cards. EMC Corp. and HP have also said they would support the Cisco management platform.

With no single storage software company dominant, getting top storage OEMs to port their in-house code is a significant achievement, said Rick Villars, storage analyst at International Data Corp. (Framingham, Mass.).

"[Storage OEMs] are hesitant to take on the costs of supporting three or four different architectures. Long term, there will be pressure to get to a single processor architecture [for storage management], but we may not see that happen for three or four years," Villars said.

The management platforms and APIs arrive as the T11.5 group is defining the Fabric Application Interface Standard, a baseline management API for applications residing on storage-networking gear. Aarohi, Brocade and Cisco have made presentations to the group, which is expected to deliver a first draft at its next meeting later this year.

"My expectation is we won't have a meaningful standard for about a year," said Predrag Spasic, an architect in the network storage group at HP, who attends the meetings. "Finding common ground takes a while."