History 2003: Adaptec Acquires ICP Vortex

It was back in March 2001 when Intel acquired ICP Vortex Computersysteme , founded in 1990 and involved in SCSI and FC RAID controllers based on Intel microprocessors.

We never really understood why, however. What was Intel hoping to achieve in this domain? Officially, at the time, it claimed it wanted to provide “Intel I/O building blocks for the network storage market segment.”

Today the acquisition of ICP, based in Neckarsulm, Germany, by Adaptec, for an undisclosed amount, makes much more sense. For Intel, it’s the logical conclusion to its policy of selling off a number of subsidiaries that don’t relate directly to its core chip business.

For Adaptec, the acquisition is the means to grow its RAID controller market in Europe and to pick up a technology team whose expertise in disk arrays is uncontested.

ICP designed and sells PCI FC and SCSI RAID controllers, and was one of the first companies in the world to offer a PCI SATA RAID controller as well as RAID-on-the-motherboard supporting 2 SCSI or up to 5 SATA channels. During Hanover’s CeBIT earlier this spring, we learned that ICP was also working on a switched RAID, for 4 to eventually 16 SATA disks. Until now, Adaptec has not so much as stuck a toe into this new promising RAID architecture.

This article is an abstract of news published on issue 186 on July 2003 from the former paper version of Computer Data Storage Newsletter.

Note:
PMC-Sierra acquires Adaptec RAID business in 2010, and Adaptec was acquired by Microsemi Corporation in 2016.