NAS 7820/1, Next Generation Media Networked Storage Solution

© PLX Technology, www.plxtech.com

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1/4/2010, Version 1.0

PLX NAS 7820/1 brings a new architectural

approach to consumer NAS system on a chip

(SoC)

For years the conventional approach to SoC design

has been the bigger hammer approach. To improve

the performance, increase the clock speed of the

processor. This approach has not been unique to the

consumer NAS market but more of a general

semiconductor industry approach.

The PLX 7820/1 changes the game by a holistic view

of the overall system architecture. It uses PLX’s

Trident architectural approach:

Figure 1: Trident Architectural Approach

1. Processor still is a key part of the overall

architecture. However, the new applications,

particularly the media applications, have unique

and stringent requirements such as low jitter and

high QoS. The common single core processors

simply cannot meet these requirements effectively

regardless of how fast the processor clock is

running. On the other hand, the dual core

architecture has significant advantages in

Simultaneously running multiple applications

Performance intensive applications

Multi-threading kernels such as Linux

Flexibility in processor resource allocation.

For example, each core could be dedicated to

specific application or load-sharing and

balancing

Independent I & D cache reduces cache

pollution improved power/performance ratio

particularly in media application processing

2. Application specific hardware offload engine. The

PLX NAS 7820/1 has taken this approach to the

next level. By analyzing the performance funnel,

and indentifying key areas and applications with

intensive processing requirements, the product has

implemented hardware engines to relieve the

processor and the internal bus from intensive

processing and system traffic. Hence this

improves the overall system performance with

better processor utilization (i.e., higher throughput

per CPU clock) reduces internal traffic within the

SoC, and better cost structure due to less

processor demand. PLX NAS 7820/1 utilizes

hardware offload engines in networking, security,

and storage (i.e., RAID & SATA) areas.

3. What integrates all the sub-systems together as a

cohesive system is restructured firmware. The key

design criterion is to fully utilize and bond all the

system hardware via highly optimized firmware.

Simply said, optimized firmware to utilize

hardware modules. This is the most challenging

part of the overall system architecture. The PLX

NAS 7820/1 has taken this approach to the next

level by providing the industry’s highest

optimized firmware for consumer storage.

Figure 2: NAS 7820 architecture overview