SilkRoad Tests High Bandwidth SRSC Application; SilkRoad Completes 411-Megabyte File Transfer In 8.21 Seconds Between SGI Server And Workstation At San Diego State University

Business Wire, July 29, 1999

SAN DIEGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 29, 1999--

SilkRoad Inc., an innovative optical networking technology company, today announced the successful results of a high bandwidth test of its Emissary(TM) product line in cooperation with SGI (NYSE:SGI) at San Diego State University (SDSU).

A campus wide (WAN) connection with 1550 nanometer fiber employed SilkRoad's Emissary product line transceivers as the end-to-end transport interfaces between an SGI(TM) high performance Origin(TM) 2000 server and an SGI(TM) O2(R) workstation. The live file transfer of 411 Megabytes (MB) of 3D geological visualization data was accomplished in only 8.21 seconds with a remarkable 0% packet loss. In comparative terms, industry standard remote WAN connections at T-1 or Asynchronous Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL) speeds would have taken almost an hour to transmit the same file.

The fiber optic connection, which required no optical amplification or erbium doped fiber amplifiers (EDFA), did require over 20db of attenuation due to the enormous coherency range of the SilkRoad equipment. The live test with SDSU's in-the-ground fiber proved that economical extreme high bandwidth communications are now commercially available. (Editors' note: Please see related 7/21/99 release regarding the introduction of the Emissary product line, the first commercial application of SRSC(TM).)

"Today, organizations often require that massive data sets be communicated quickly and with 0% data loss. For the first time SRSC(TM) technology allows these organizations to take advantage of services such as real time interactive data and video communications," said Kevin Doria, SilkRoad president and chief executive officer. "We have demonstrated that products featuring SRSC(TM) technology will create a new price point for long haul, metro, access and local network point-to-point communications, while offering bandwidth value and versatility."

The test took place at SDSU as part of the "Statewide Application of California-Mexico Technology Infrastructure Link" meeting. Attendees included members of the California Assembly Select Committee on California-Mexico Affairs led by Assemblyman Marco Firebaugh, three trustees of the CSU system, representatives from IT and leadership teams at SDSU led by University President Steve Weber, and other local and regional industry leaders. The focus of the meeting was to showcase the development and enhancement of ongoing educational, research, business and health programs utilizing new technologies to meet California's needs and to build an international partnership with Mexico and other nations.

"SilkRoad's product's are key to the deployment of the technology infrastructure we are pursuing," said Prof. Eric Frost of SDSU's Geological Sciences department and meeting moderator. "Today's exhibition demonstrated that we are at a threshold of communications improvements that will broaden the reach of critical information worldwide."

Prof. Bob Pozos of the Biology department and Assistant Dean of the College of Sciences was one of the co-organizers of the meeting and participated electronically, "This new means of collaborating with our colleagues in Mexico has staggering implications for not only global educational collaboration, but also tele-medicine and business partnerships between our two countries."

Dean William Locke, SDSU's Director of Global Program Development in the Office of the President, who put the meeting together, said, "There is extraordinary potential for the State of California in its efforts to communicate internally and with Sacramento to establish a template for communications to other countries that could profoundly affect the world."

"SilkRoad has been working with SDSU from the early stages of our company's development. We share a vision for reaching other parts of the world -- fiber optics and SilkRoad technology offer an extraordinary paradigm shift in what is possible to do globally," said F. Christian Rader, Director of Global Education Development at SilkRoad.

The transmitted files were an example of the high volume graphical file communication required in the Oil/Gas, Medical, Entertainment, Government and Educational markets. "Many of SGI's customers work with files that are over 300 Gigabytes (GBs) in size," said Greg Estes, vice president Marketing, Communications and Media, SGI. "The ability to transfer these files over long distances with minimal delay and cost will help many of our broadband media, high performance computing and other high volume customers."

Using SilkRoad's Emissary 1600(TM) optical transceiver and the SGI(TM) parallel file processing capability, a 300GB file can be transferred in 6 minutes and 15 seconds. The same file transferred using a T1 line, typically installed for remote communications, would take 28 days and 16 hours to transfer.

The test data was provided and conducted by Jacob Diedjomahor, who works full time for a major oil firm. Jacob will be completing his Master's thesis in SDSU's distance learning program in Geological Sciences and then entering the cooperative Doctor of Science program between SDSU and the Mexican earth science institute, CICESE in Ensenada.