Emulex Host Bus Adapters Receive Cisco Qualification for Use with its Cisco MDS 9000 Family

Qualification Enables Deployment of Robust, Scalable Storage Solutions


COSTA MESA, Calif., Dec. 3, 2003 (PRIMEZONE) -- Emulex Corporation (NYSE:ELX), the world's leading supplier of storage networking host bus adapters (HBAs), announced today that additional Emulex HBAs have been qualified by Cisco Systems (Nasdaq:CSCO) for use with its Cisco MDS 9000 Family of Mulitlayer Intelligent directors and fabric switches. This qualification includes Emulex's new LP10000 HBA running Windows, and completes qualification of the LP9802 and LP9002 HBA families for Windows, Solaris and Linux environments. Rigorous testing was conducted on Emulex HBAs at Cisco's state-of-the-art interoperability lab to ensure complete compatibility with the Cisco MDS 9000 family of products.

"The qualification of Emulex's intelligent HBAs indicates that the products have been designed so that customers can plug together Emulex connectivity solutions with any of the Cisco MDS 9000 product offerings including both the highly-scalable director class line, as well as the recently announced fixed fabric class switches," said Bill Erdman, Director of Storage Alliances at Cisco Systems. "Cisco and Emulex will continue to work together in driving further management capabilities of its HBAs, including tighter integration between the Cisco MDS 9000 Fabric Manager and Emulex's HBAnyware interface."

The Emulex LP10000, LP9802 and LP9002 families of HBAs are fully compatible with drivers that incorporate Emulex's new centralized HBA management suite, HBAnyware, which features driver-based technology to enable complete management of Emulex HBAs and the ability to upgrade firmware anywhere in a SAN from a single console. Emulex HBAs feature a unique architecture that enables forward and backward compatibility with both new and existing SAN installations. In addition, Emulex HBAs offer a firmware upgradeable architecture that protects customers' investments in storage networking solutions, by enabling a simplified upgrade path without requiring hardware replacement.

"This qualification by Cisco is a testament to the interoperability of Emulex's HBAs, as well as both company's vision to lower the total of cost of ownership for today's most demanding storage environments," said Mike Smith, executive vice president of Worldwide Marketing of Emulex. "By working with Cisco, we remain committed to ensuring the highest levels of compatibility and reliability."

About Emulex

Emulex Corporation is the world's largest supplier and developer of storage networking host bus adapters and a leading provider of embedded storage switching and connectivity technologies to the industry's foremost storage and server manufacturers. Emulex was recently named one of Forbes Magazine's 25 Fastest Growing Technology Companies in 2002, and ranked number 15 in Deloitte & Touche's 2003 Technology Fast 50. Corporate headquarters are located in Costa Mesa, California. News releases and other information about Emulex Corporation are available at www.emulex.com.

EMULEX -- We network storage

"Safe Harbor" Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995: With the exception of historical information, the statements set forth above include forward-looking statements that involve risk and uncertainties. The company wishes to caution readers that a number of important factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. Those factors include the rapidly changing nature of technology, evolving industry standards and frequent introductions of new products and enhancements by competitors; fluctuation in the growth of Fibre Channel and IP markets; changes in economic conditions or changes in end-user demand for technology solutions; fluctuations or delays in customer orders; the highly competitive nature of the markets for Emulex's products; Emulex's ability to gain market acceptance for its products; the company's ability to attract and retain skilled personnel; the company's reliance on third-party suppliers. These and other factors which could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements are also discussed in the company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its recent filings on Forms 8-K, 10-K and 10-Q.

This news release refers to various products and companies by their trade names. In most, if not all, cases these designations are claimed as trademarks or registered trademarks by their respective companies.



            

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