PLX Exceeds One Million NAS Units Shipped, Market Acceptance Validated

Based on market research, PLX expects global consumer NAS unit sales to grow to 13 million units by 2012, with the total available market for silicon to exceed $100M. Since its inception, the overall consumer NAS market has grown beyond the simple desktop storage receptacle into a multi-functional, application-oriented home network that is accessible at anytime and from anywhere in the world.

New market applications integrating PLX NAS solutions include merging the SoCs into set-top boxes, DVRs, routers/gateways and other networked consumer electronics, enabling the connectivity of multiple computers (desktops, laptops and netbooks), smart phones, digital photo frames, Internet radio, and other various media.

NAS SOC technology's evolution has provided a tremendous opportunity for its application in the networked home, said Sergis Mushell, principal research analyst, Gartner Research. Furthermore, a wide range of form factors and applications now can take advantage of the NAS SOC technology enablement – from computing to security to home and portable entertainment – all with efficient, high-speed connectivity.

PLX today is working with leading storage OEMs on its third generation of consumer NAS SoC solutions. PLX recently doubled overall performance of the previous generation of NAS products and today offers an unmatched price-performance ratio that is driven by a high level of integration, requiring very few additional components to build a system. Some of the optimized acceleration functions include encryption, hashing, RAID, audio, VoIP, and routing.

The strong growth of NAS in the home is a signal that PLX is developing the right products at the right time for a global clientele, said David Raun, vice president of marketing and business development, PLX. As the forerunner and technology leader in the consumer storage market, PLX is well positioned to continue provide customers with powerful, application enriched silicon that enhances and distinguishes amongst a broad and growing market.

All PLX storage devices, including NAS and direct attached storage (DAS) solutions, are backed by the industry's most powerful and flexible software development environment, which supports rapid OEM customization resulting in easy-to-use products for end-users. PLX enables OEMs to deliver world-class solutions to consumers by supplying ready-to-go application firmware that has been extensively stress-tested by PLX and enables an application to be differentiated through enviable features and leading performance. PLX, with more than two decades of semiconductor-design expertise, is a leading supplier of consumer storage solutions and is fully engaged with the world's market leaders.