ALISO VIEJO, Calif., June 21, 2006 (PRIMEZONE) -- QLogic(r) Corp. (Nasdaq:QLGC), the leader in Fibre Channel host bus adapters (HBAs), stackable switches and blade server switches, today announced that its 4Gb SANblade(r) Pro 2400 series Fibre Channel (FC) HBAs are qualified and now available from Network Appliance, Inc. (Nasdaq:NTAP). NetApp will sell QLogic 4Gb FC HBAs (NetApp(r) models X1088A-R6, X1089A-R6) for hosts attaching to NetApp unified storage systems. In addition, QLogic SANbox(r) switches have been tested and qualified for use with NetApp storage products. With the choice of QLogic SANblade Pro 4Gb HBAs on the server and target side, and SANbox switches, NetApp enterprise customers can now enable an end-to-end 4Gb FC storage solution from QLogic.
The 4Gb FC HBAs and switches from QLogic provide customers a means to increase the performance and availability of mission-critical data and applications. The QLogic 4Gb technology is ideal for businesses that work with large amounts of information and complex applications, ranging from rendering and modeling applications to large databases.
"The QLogic 4Gb HBAs and SANbox switches provide our customers with powerful technologies to improve the performance of their SAN infrastructures," said Patrick Rogers, vice president of Products and Partners at Network Appliance. "Together with QLogic, we are helping to drive the 4Gb Fibre Channel markets and provide enterprises with storage solutions that simplify data management, improve productivity, and lower cost of ownership."
QLogic is the storage industry's leader in Fibre Channel HBAs; a recent study by the Dell'Oro Group ranked QLogic number one in market share for Fibre Channel host bus adapter ports shipped. The Dell'Oro Group reported that QLogic shipped a market-leading 46.1 percent of Fibre Channel HBA ports in 2005, compared to 40 percent for its nearest competitor. This success is directly linked to the company's commitment to developing products with superior performance, reliability and ease of use.
"QLogic is dedicated to providing its customers and partners with the most innovative solutions for managing storage networks," said Roger Klein, vice president of marketing at QLogic. "Our 4Gb Fibre Channel HBAs have set the standard for quality, reliability and performance in the industry, offering businesses the highest read and write performance available today. We are thrilled to be working with NetApp to provide its customers with a unique end-to-end 4Gb storage solution that allows them to scale and evolve Fibre Channel storage networks to keep pace with growing user demand."
"A Better 4Gb" from QLogic
New 4Gb HBAs and switches from QLogic offer a suite of technology advancements that help storage administrators in large enterprises ensure complete business continuity, maintain application performance and cost-effectively scale their networks.
For Better 4Gb Reliability:
-- Overlapping Protection Domains - This QLogic exclusive ensures
that data is not left unprotected, even for the smallest
fraction of time, by generating a new check of parity or ECC
before stripping out the old check. This offers a superior
level of protection, well beyond traditional implementations.
-- HBA Failover with Linux - To protect data even if there is a
component failure, QLogic uniquely offers Linux drivers that
provide customers with automatic failover and fail back
between redundant HBAs.
For Better 4Gb Performance:
-- Intelligent Interleaved DMA - Unlike round-robin schemes for
transmitting data in a mixed 1Gb/2Gb/4Gb environment, QLogic
HBAs detect the link rate that each target can support and
transmit simultaneously, and at maximum performance, to each
storage device.
-- Out Of Order Frame Reassembly - Only HBAs from QLogic
reassemble frames within an exchange in the correct order,
even though they may have been received out of order. This
improves performance by eliminating the need to retransmit
the entire I/O block.
For Better 4Gb Scalability:
-- Virtual SAN (VSAN) - This QLogic exclusive allows a single HBA
to read VSAN tags in packets sent from a Cisco MDS switch. As
a result, QLogic HBAs can support multiple VSANs, each with a
completely isolated fabric topology and set of fabric services
including name server, zone server, domain controller, alias
server and login server.
About QLogic
QLogic is a leading supplier of high performance storage networking solutions including Fibre Channel host bus adapters (HBAs), blade server embedded Fibre Channel switches, Fibre Channel stackable switches, iSCSI HBAs, iSCSI routers and storage services platforms for enabling advanced storage management applications. The company is also a leading supplier of server networking products including InfiniBand host channel adapters that accelerate cluster performance. QLogic products are delivered to small-to-medium businesses and large enterprises around the world via its channel partner community. QLogic products are also powering solutions from leading companies like Cisco, Dell, EMC, Hitachi Data Systems, HP, IBM, NEC, Network Appliance and Sun Microsystems. QLogic is a member of the S&P 500 Index. For more information, go to www.qlogic.com.
Note: All QLogic-issued press releases appear on the Company's website (www.qlogic.com). Any announcement that does not appear on the QLogic website has not been issued by QLogic.
Disclaimer -- Forward Looking Statements
This press release contains statements relating to future results of the Company (including certain beliefs and projections regarding business trends) This press release contains statements relating to future results of the Company (including certain beliefs and projections regarding business trends) that are "forward-looking statements" as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected or implied in the forward-looking statements. The Company advises readers that these potential risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to: potential fluctuations in operating results; gross margins that may vary over time; revenues may be affected by changes in IT spending levels; the stock price of the Company may be volatile; the Company's dependence on the storage area network market; the ability to maintain and gain market or industry acceptance of the Company's products; the Company's dependence on a limited number of customers; seasonal fluctuations and uneven sales patterns in orders from customers; the Company's ability to compete effectively with other companies; declining average unit sales prices of comparable products; a reduction in sales efforts by current distributors; dependence on sole source and limited source suppliers; the Company's dependence on relationships with certain silicon chip suppliers; the complexity of the Company's products; sales fluctuations arising from customer transitions to new products; the uncertainty associated with SOX 404 compliance; environmental compliance costs; terrorist activities and resulting military actions; international economic, regulatory, political and other risks; uncertain benefits from strategic business combinations; the ability to attract and retain key personnel; recognition of compensation expenses related to employee stock options and employee stock purchases; the decreased effectiveness of equity compensation; difficulties in transitioning to smaller geometry process technologies; the ability to protect proprietary rights; the ability to satisfactorily resolve any infringement claims; reliance on third party licenses; the use of "open source" software in our products; changes in our tax provisions or adverse outcomes resulting from examination of our income tax returns; computer viruses and other tampering with the Company's computer systems; charter documents that may discourage a business combination; and facilities of the Company and its suppliers and customers are located in areas subject to natural disasters.
More detailed information on these and additional factors which could affect the Company's operating and financial results are described in the Company's Forms 10-K, 10-Q and other reports filed, or to be filed, with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Company urges all interested parties to read these reports to gain a better understanding of the many business and other risks that the Company faces. The forward-looking statements contained in this press release are made only as of the date hereof, and the Company undertakes no obligation to update or revise these forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
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