COSTA MESA and SCOTTS VALLEY, Calif. and HAVANT, U.K., March 15, 2004 (PRIMEZONE) -- Emulex Corporation (NYSE:ELX), Seagate Technology (NYSE:STX) and Xyratex announced today a collaborative effort resulting in the storage industry's first fully functional 4 Gb/s Fibre Channel demonstration. The three companies will display their respective 4 Gb/s products in a fully operational, live working demonstration at this week's CeBit 2004 Trade Exhibition in Hannover, Germany. Xyratex's leading storage enclosure technology, Seagate's latest 4 Gb/s enterprise drives and Emulex's recently-announced InSpeed SOC 422 4 Gb/s embedded storage switches combine to create a unique demonstration that will be ready for OEM testing, integration and deployment later in the year. The joint demonstration will be on display in the Emulex Corporation stand (Hall 1 -- 72GA4). CeBit, Europe's largest IT technology trade exhibition event, opens on March 18th, 2004.
"The storage solution we're demonstrating at CeBit goes well beyond a proof-of-concept," said Malcolm Muggeridge, CTO for Storage Systems Technology at Xyratex. "This demonstration integrates products from three of the industry's 4 Gb/s leaders into a fully integrated storage system. Xyratex is proud to be part of the industry leadership."
Optical transceiver technologies for the CeBit demonstration, as well as interoperability development and testing support, came from Agilent, Infineon, Intel and JDS Uniphase.
CeBit Demonstration 4 Gb/s Storage Technologies and Participants
Seagate Technology: As the leading supplier of innovative storage products and interface technologies, Seagate's Fibre Channel family of disc drives are the storage standard for the largest enterprises. The 4 Gb/s demonstration consists of Seagate Cheetah disc drives in communication with both the Emulex and Xyratex solutions, and functioning with full interoperability.
"Seagate pioneered the Fibre Channel disc drive interface which is today the most advanced and robust serial interfaces. We believe Fibre Channel running at 4 Gb/s speeds will provide the necessary performance and reliability for tomorrow's enterprise systems that are currently being taken to the limits with their ability to deliver and store data," said Jeff Loebakka, Seagate vice president of Global Product Marketing. "Working with key technology leaders such as Emulex and Xyratex helps ensure that Seagate will continue to deliver best-in-class disc drive storage solutions for the widest range of markets for the enterprise."
Emulex Corporation: Facilitating the switched back-end architecture in the demonstration, in an SBOD -or "Switched Bunch of Disks" application, is Emulex's InSpeed SOC 422 Embedded Storage Switch. Emulex's award-winning InSpeed technology increases the RAS (Reliability, Availability and Serviceability) and performance characteristics of storage systems. The InSpeed SOC 422, first announced in January 2004, is Emulex's third generation of InSpeed technology, and incorporates a variety of unique innovations:
-- 22 ports run at 4, 2 or 1 Gb/s speeds
-- Automatic Trunking fully multiplies throughput and bandwidth with
fail-over pathing
-- In-band communications lower OEM implementation costs more than
50 percent over previous generations by eliminating expensive
specialized external processor requirements for SES
-- Fairness and Prioritization ensures devices have guaranteed
access to all other devices, eliminating "drive starvation"
-- Advanced Diagnostics, Performance Monitoring and Fault
Isolation ensure storage system availability is maximized
-- A common InSpeed API ensures continued ease of implementation
for OEM customers and compatibility with previous generation
InSpeed SOCs
"At present, eight leading storage OEMs are either testing or deploying the InSpeed SOC 422," said Mike Smith, executive vice president of Worldwide Marketing for Emulex Corporation. "For Emulex, this live demonstration is particularly exciting in that it supports the viability of the InSpeed SOC 422 product in advance of formal deployment by our OEM customers. Emulex remains committed to collaborating with technology leaders like Seagate and Xyratex to pave the way for the industry's migration to 4 Gb/s Fibre Channel."
Xyratex: Providing an optimized disk drive environment with excellent rotational, vibrational, thermal, and acoustic characteristics, re-emphasizes Xyratex's leading position within the storage enclosure market for Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs).
Xyratex has built its initial 4 Gb/s product on the successful 2 Gb/s enterprise class SBOD (Switched Bunch of Disks) storage enclosure. Use of the InSpeed SOC 422's non-blocking switch with trunking features provides over 1.6 gigabyte per second bandwidth from a single 16 bay storage enclosure.
The 4 Gb/s enterprise class storage enclosure demonstrates functionality improvements including; 4 Gb/s on both host interface and drive interfaces, 6 host ports, and new features from the InSpeed SOC 422 for example, Trunking and LIP management.
The Xyratex SBOD enclosure has been optimized for 4 Gb/s operation through improved signal integrity, jitter and noise tolerance. Integrated SBOD firmware already used on Xyratex's currently shipping 2 Gb/s SBOD solution has been utilized with the InSpeed SOC 422 device in this 4 Gb/s implementation.
The three elements within this demonstration: Seagate's 4 Gb/s drive, the Xyratex Enclosure and SBOD controller card incorporating the Emulex InSpeed SOC 422, have enabled Xyratex to be one of the first enterprise class storage enclosure manufacturers to establish a 4 Gb/s technology base, thus demonstrating a continued commitment to advancing new technology boundaries for the benefit of our OEM customers.
"Seagate, Emulex and Xyratex have compiled an impressive working demonstration of next generation 4 Gb/s Fibre Channel technologies," said Eric Sheppard, European Storage Systems Research Manager of IDC, a leading market research firm. "The anticipated reliability levels and diagnostic capabilities of an enclosure design such as this should resonate well with European enterprise storage users, who face ever increasing capacity, management and scalability requirements."
Supporting Commentary from Industry Leaders
"The new Intel* TXN3111 SFP Optical Transceiver provides excellent performance at 4 Gb/s within this system," said Bob Zona, marketing director of Intel's Optical Products Division. "The new 4 Gb/s transceiver also enables compatibility with today's 1- and 2 Gb/s systems, and at roughly the same price as 2-Gb/s transceivers when purchased in volume."
"In order to meet current and future industry needs JDS Uniphase has made a significant commitment to 4 Gb/s technology, so we are pleased to work with storage industry leaders in a demonstration of a fully integrated storage system that can be used with our new line of 4 Gb/s Fibre Channel transceivers," said Don Bossi, President of JDS Uniphase's Transmission Products Group. "We believe that emerging 4 Gb/s-based technology will help our customers improve storage network efficiency and we look forward to continuing our work with such innovative firms in developing new solutions for our customers."
"Infineon was the first company to offer 4 Gb/s transceivers to storage industry leaders to help enable this industry-first demonstration," said Rami Kanama, Senior Marketing Manager, Infineon Optical Modules Group. "Infineon's 4 Gb/s Fibre Channel transceiver products are backward compatible with 1 and 2 GFC systems, offer digital diagnostics capabilities and are available in SFF and SFP form factors for both HBA and switch products. We were pleased to be a part of this effort to help advance the industry's migration to 4 Gb/s storage technologies."
About Xyratex
Xyratex is a leading provider of enterprise class data storage subsystems and network technology. We design and manufacture enabling technology that provides our OEM and disk drive manufacturer customers with data storage products to support high-performance storage and data communication networks.
Founded in 1994 in an MBO from IBM, and with headquarters in the UK, the company employs over 700 people with around a third working in R&D. Xyratex has an established global base with R&D and operational facilities in Europe, the United States and South East Asia. For further information about Xyratex storage products, please visit our website at www.xyratex.com, or contact your regional sales director.
About Seagate
Seagate is the worldwide leader in the design, manufacturing and marketing of hard disc drives, providing products for a wide range of Enterprise, PC, Notebook and Consumer Electronics applications. The Company is committed to delivering award-winning products, customer support and reliability, to meet the world's growing demand for information storage. Seagate can be found around the globe and at www.seagate.com.
Seagate, Seagate Technology, the WAVE logo and Cheetah are trademarks or registered trademarks of Seagate Technology LLC. All other trademarks or registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
About Emulex
Emulex Corporation is the world's largest supplier and developer of Fibre Channel host bus adapters and a leading provider of embedded storage technologies to the industry's top-tier storage and server manufacturers. Emulex was recently ranked number 15 in Deloitte & Touche's 2003 Technology Fast 50 and named one of Forbes Magazine's 25 Fastest Growing Technology Companies.
The Emulex award-winning product families, including its LightPulse(tm) HBAs and InSpeedTM embedded storage switching products, are based on internally developed ASIC, firmware and software technologies spanning both Fibre Channel and IP networking protocols, and offer customers high performance, scalability, flexibility and reduced total cost of ownership. The company's products have been selected by the world's leading server and storage providers, including Apple, Dell, EMC, Fujitsu Ltd., Fujitsu Siemens, Groupe Bull, HP, Hitachi Data Systems, IBM, NEC, Network Appliance, StorageTek, Sun Microsystems, Unisys and Xyratex. In addition, Emulex includes industry leaders Brocade, Computer Associates, Intel, McDATA, Microsoft and VERITAS among its strategic partners. Additionally, Emulex and Intel, via a joint development agreement, are pioneering the industry's first storage processors for Serial ATA, Serial Attached SCSI and Fibre Channel interfaces within a single architecture.
Emulex markets to OEMs and end users through its own worldwide selling organization, as well as its two-tier distribution partners, including ACAL, Avnet, Bell Microproducts, Info-X, Netmarks, Tech Data, TidalWire and Tokyo Electron. Corporate headquarters are located in Costa Mesa, California. News releases and other information about Emulex Corporation are available at http://www.emulex.com.
EMULEX -- We network storage
Emulex Safe Harbor Statement
"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.
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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.
* Other names and brands may be claimed as the property of others.