SAN JOSE, Calif., Sept. 17, 2003 (PRIMEZONE) -- QLogic Corp. (Nasdaq:QLGC), the company that powers storage area networks (SANs), today announced that its SANbox(tm) switches and SANblade(tm) host bus adapters (HBAs) are interoperable with the newly announced line of Intel Enterprise Blade Servers. QLogic is showcasing its line of interoperable products today at the Intel Developer Forum.
"We are pleased to have the support of QLogic as part of our introduction of the Intel Enterprise Blade Server," said Phil Brace, director of marketing, Intel Corp. "Intel OEMs of this product and end user customers can count on easy integration into existing SAN environments that are powered by QLogic."
"The Intel Enterprise Blade Server is a breakthrough for this important new class of server," said Frank Berry, vice president of marketing, QLogic Corp. "Now OEMs have a strong foundation for developing blade servers that can support core business applications in the data center."
Intel Enterprise Blade Server Fibre Channel Solution
The Intel Enterprise Blade Server Family offers Fibre Channel connectivity in a low-cable, easily serviced solution that simplifies maintenance. The Intel Server Chassis SBCE supports two Fibre Channel switch modules that eliminate the chore of managing a separate Fibre Channel infrastructure. Fibre Channel management becomes part of basic server operations.
The second part of the Intel Enterprise Blade Server Family Fibre Channel solution is the Intel Fibre Channel Expansion Card that integrates onto the Intel Server Compute Blade. This expansion card connects directly with the Fibre Channel switch, eliminating as many as 28 cables from a single Intel Server Chassis SBCE. This cable-less configuration streamlines data center clutter and confusion and speeds server and network repair.
SANblade Fibre Channel HBAs
"Superior driver implementation" and a "commitment to interoperability and ease of use," earned the QLogic 2Gb SANblade HBA Network Computing's "Editor's Choice" and "Well Connected" awards. QLogic SANblade HBAs offer an extensive checklist of features and benefits that is unmatched in the industry including performance of up to 80,000 Input/Output operations per second (IOPs) and native support for Sun(tm) Solaris(tm), Microsoft(r) Windows NT(r) and Windows 2000, Novell(r) NetWare, Red Hat(r) Linux(r) and SuSE Linux.
SANbox Fibre Channel Switches
The QLogic SANbox2 Fibre Channel switch won Network Computing's "Editor's Choice" and "Well Connected" awards because of its "great features, reasonable price, and excellent performance, especially on (the magazine's) latency and throughput tests." QLogic SANbox Fibre Channel network switches provide investment protection for current and future SAN infrastructures, establishing new standards of performance, reliability and simplicity. Available from 8 to 64 ports, QLogic SANbox switches are among the fastest, most scalable, and easiest to manage Fibre Channel switches on the market. All QLogic SANbox2 switches feature Non-Disruptive Code Load and Activation (NDCLA), a director-class feature that provides SAN administrators with a non disruptive way of performing the frequent switch code loads required to maintain interoperability when new equipment is added to a SAN.
The QLogic SANbox2-64 Modular Fabric Switch
The SANbox2-64 is a new class of Edge switch that makes deploying and scaling a SAN much easier and more cost-effective. Its dense, bladed architecture allows SAN architects to easily scale from 16 ports to 64 ports in just 4U (7") of rack space. In addition, the SANbox2-64 modular fabric switch offers redundancy and hot-swap capabilities typically found only in much more expensive Director switches.
The Blade Server Revolution
The Internet has changed the server usage model from single servers to higher density server farms. However, system administrators find deployment and operation difficult. Server resilience and complex cabling are serious problems for server farms. There are also problems associated with securing and managing large numbers of servers.
Blade servers address server farm issues by stacking independent servers within a single cabinet. Each blade is an independent system with its own memory, processor and network connection. Multiple blade servers can be placed in a single rack or enclosure.
Blade Server Infrastructure Powered by Qlogic
QLogic offers a family of single chip products that form a complete I/O infrastructure for dense blade servers. Single chip HBAs, switches and management controllers from QLogic provide fast, reliable and scalable storage expansion in an ultra-compact form-factor.
Powered by QLogic
Since 1993, over 45 million QLogic products have shipped inside servers, workstations, RAID subsystems, tape libraries, disk and tape drives. These products were delivered to small, medium and large enterprises around the world. Powering solutions from leading companies like Cisco, Dell, EMC, Fujitsu, Hitachi, HP, IBM, Network Appliance, Quantum, StorageTek and Sun Microsystems, the broad line of QLogic controller chips, host bus adapters, network switches and management software move data from storage devices through the network fabric to servers. A member of the S&P 500 and NASDAQ 100, QLogic was recently named to Business Week's list of 100 Hot Growth Companies for 2003. In addition, QLogic was named to Forbes' Best 200 Small Companies for the fourth consecutive year and was named to Fortune's 100 Fastest Growing Companies list for the third consecutive year during fiscal year 2003. For more information visit www.qlogic.com.
Note: All QLogic-issued press releases appear on the company's web site (www.qlogic.com). Any announcement that does not appear on the QLogic web site has not been issued by QLogic.
Disclaimer - Forward-Looking Statements
With the exception of historical information, the statements set forth above include forward-looking statements as defined within 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. QLogic wishes to advise readers that these potential risks and uncertainties relate to, but are not limited to, in no particular order: the introduction of new and changing technologies in our industry and customer acceptance of those technologies; a change in semiconductor foundry capacity or conditions; fluctuations in the growth of I/O markets; fluctuations or cancellations in orders from OEM customers; QLogic's ability to compete effectively with other companies; cancellation of OEM products associated with design wins; and fluctuations in our operating results and our stock price.
More detailed information on these and additional factors which could affect QLogic's operating and financial results are described in QLogic's Forms 10-Q, 10-K and other reports, filed or to be filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. QLogic urges all interested parties to read these reports to gain a better understanding of the many business and other risks that QLogic faces. Additionally, QLogic undertakes no obligation to publicly release the results of any revisions to these forward-looking statements, which may be made to reflect events or circumstances occurring after the date hereof or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events.
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