Adaptec announced that it has entered into a strategic alliance with Vitesse Semiconductor Corporation, a leading provider of enterprise class storage IC solutions, to develop and market next generation Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) products. Working together, Vitesse will combine its 6Gb/s mixed signal and expander technology and expertise with Adaptec's RAID, RAID 6, and I/O technology and expertise to develop advanced SAS products which will allow Adaptec to bring to market one of the broadest SAS product lines in the industry. Under the terms of the alliance, Vitesse will employ selected Adaptec engineers and license certain SAS technology and assets related to Adaptec's development of SAS RAID on Chip (SAS ROC) products. In addition, Vitesse and Adaptec will supply original equipment manufacturer (OEM) customers and channel customers with advanced SAS technologies, such as ROC chips (including the management software, firmware, and drivers), expanders, bridges, and I/O silicon.