Comtech AHA Announces Apache GZIP Compression Module for AHA363-PCIe GZIP Accelerator Board

Comtech AHA Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Comtech Telecommunications Corp. (NASDAQ:CMTL) that develops technology for the communications, networking and data storage markets, today announced the availability of a GZIP compression module for Apache Web Servers.

The Apache HTTP Server currently supports GZIP compression of Web content (i.e. file data); however, enabling GZIP compression in software typically swamps the CPU on heavily loaded Web servers. Thus, installing the Comtech AHA GZIP accelerator board, with the Apache plug-in software, will offload the GZIP compression function to a hardware co-processor, and greatly reduce the time to serve Web content. This solution creates much shorter download times for the user and can increase the number of clients handled by the server using the same bandwidth.

Comtech AHA’s compression module greatly reduces CPU load with its on-board Scatter/Gather DMA engine. Hardware-based GZIP compression, using Comtech AHA’s accelerator board, is much more power efficient than a software-based GZIP solution. Power consumption relative to the GZIP compression throughput is five times lower compared to a Quad Core CPU running software-based GZIP.

"This product meets the needs of our customers by accelerating Web servers and saving power, and it can also be installed by any IT support person,” said Bill Thomson, president, Comtech AHA. "This software module coupled with our AHA363 compression board provides even a small size Web-hosting server with a cost-effective hardware accelerator solution, better enabling them to compete with much larger companies.”

Based on the popular Open Standard GZIP (also Deflate) Data Compression Algorithm, the GZIP board supports full duplex streaming of up to 5.0 Gbps uncompressed data rate, over the industry standard PCI-Express four lane interface, and achieves compression ratios of more than four-to-one for average Web content data.

Other applications that use the ZLIB library, can utilize the AHA363-PCIe board by means of the AHA363-PCIe ZLIB library interface. This modified ZLIB library serves to redirect ZLIB library calls so that data compression is offloaded to Comtech AHA’s board instead of the system’s CPU.

Product Features:

• Full GZIP (Deflate) algorithm compliance
• X4 PCI express interface
• 5.0 Gbps uncompressed throughput
• Efficient scatter/gather DMA
• Apache interface module

For more information please contact Comtech AHA via email at sales@aha.com, or by phone at 208-892-5600.

About AHA

Comtech AHA Corporation develops and markets application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), boards, and intellectual property core technology for communications systems architects worldwide. Comtech AHA provides flexible, cost-effective solutions for today’s growing bandwidth and reliability challenges. Located in Moscow, Idaho, Comtech AHA has been providing leading edge Forward Error Correction and Lossless Data Compression technology for more than twenty years and offers a variety of standard and custom IC solutions for the data communications industry. Comtech AHA Corporation is a wholly owned subsidiary of Comtech Telecommunications Corp. (NASDAQ:CMTL). For more information, visit www.aha.com.

Certain information in this press release contains statements that are forward-looking in nature and involve certain significant risks and uncertainties. Actual results could differ materially from such forward-looking information. Comtech Telecommunications Corp.'s Securities and Exchange Commission filings identify many such risks and uncertainties. Any forward-looking information in this press release is qualified in its entirety by the risks and uncertainties described in such Securities and Exchange Commission filings.