Finisar Adds SATA Protocol to Its Industry-Leading Xgig SAS Jammer

New Capability Will Enhance Xgig Jammer's Versatility in SAN Testing


SUNNYVALE, CA -- (MARKET WIRE) -- October 31, 2006 -- Finisar Corporation (NASDAQ: FNSR), a leading provider of fiber optic subsystems and network test and monitoring solutions, today introduced the latest iteration to its market-leading storage area network (SAN) testing product, the Xgig® Jammer. This new release, version 2.6, adds serial ATA (SATA) protocol testing capabilities at both 1.5 and 3.0 Gb/s to the Jammer's previously supported protocols, which include Fibre Channel, Ethernet and serial attached SCSI (SAS).

Recent industry research expects data storage requirements to double every 18-24 months over the next several years, prompting IT managers to look for the most efficient means of storage. Serial storage technologies such as SATA and SAS are being adopted due to their low cost, reliability and performance density. According to industry analysts, nearly every major vendor is currently shipping SATA drives, for low cost and nearline storage applications within a larger storage framework.

"Finisar created the latest version of the Xgig Jammer to specifically address our customers' growing requirements for tiered storage offerings," said Dave Buse, senior vice president and general manager of the Network Tools Group, Finisar. "As network data storage systems continue to grow in complexity, our customers need solutions that provide a thorough and reliable testing process so that issues can be addressed in advance to minimize costly down time and critical loss of data."

The Jammer tool, developed by Finisar, helps engineers speed up testing of protocol compliance and create "what-if" scenarios by allowing user specified modification of actual network protocol traffic. The newly enhanced Xgig Jammer now has the ability to bring these same testing capabilities to SATA traffic as have been proven in development labs for Fibre Channel, Ethernet and SAS, for years. The product provides a way to arbitrarily simulate almost any conceivable error test case, which allows developers to improve error checking, enable shorter testing cycles, and speed time-to-market for their storage products. Utilizing its SAS/SATA specific hardware (blade), the Xgig platform not only supports SAS and SATA but also their associated Serial SCSI Protocol (SSP), SATA Tunneling Protocol (STP) and SAS Management Protocol (SMP) embedded protocols. In addition, Xgig supports out-of-band (OOB) signaling and spread spectrum clocking (SSC). Using the updated Xgig Maestro software application framework, a single instance of the Xgig Jammer can control "jamming" on as many as 64 SAS and/or SATA links.

The Xgig Jammer can be used in conjunction with the Xgig Analyzer. The Jammer generates errors for testing purposes, and then the Analyzer captures and displays network traffic associated with the recovery from the change. This setup allows testers to view traffic both before and after changes to validate the change. As well, the Analyzer can provide testers with answers as to the target device's response to this modification. In this way, testers can get a full view of tests before, during and after to get complete coverage of all cases.

The enhanced Finisar Xgig Jammer 2.6 is currently available. For more information about Finisar's proven solutions for storage network optimization and management, visit http://www.finisar.com or contact a Finisar Solution Expert at 1.408.548.1000 or sales@finisar.com.

About Finisar

Finisar Corporation is a technology leader for fiber optic subsystems and network performance test systems. These products enable high-speed data communications for networking and storage applications over Gigabit Ethernet Local Area Networks (LANs), Fibre Channel Storage Area Networks (SANs), and Metropolitan Area Networks (MANs) using Fibre Channel, IP and SONET/SDH protocols. The company is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California. For more information visit Finisar at www.finisar.com.

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The statements contained in this press release that are not purely historical are forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, including statements regarding Finisar's expectations, beliefs, intentions, or strategies regarding the future. All forward-looking statements included in this press release are based upon information available to Finisar as of the date hereof, and Finisar assumes no obligation to update any such forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties, which could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected. These risks include those associated with the rapidly evolving markets for Finisar's products and uncertainty regarding the development of these markets; Finisar's historical dependence on sales to a limited number of customers and fluctuations in the mix of customers in any period; ongoing new product development and introduction of new and enhanced products; the challenges of rapid growth followed by periods of contraction; and intensive competition. Further information regarding these and other risks relating to Finisar's business is set forth in Finisar's Annual Report on Form 10-K and other interim reports as filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Contact Information: MEDIA CONTACT: Victoria McDonald Finisar Corporation (408) 542-4261 victoria.mcdonald@finisar.com