IBM Enterprise Storage Server Employs Emulex Host Adapter for Fibre Channel Interface; LightPulse Host Adapter Provides Target Connection for `'Shark'' Storage System

Business Wire, August 14, 2000

Business Editors and High-Tech Writers

COSTA MESA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 14, 2000

Emulex Corp. (Nasdaq:EMLX), the world's largest independent supplier of fibre channel host bus adapters(a), Monday announced that the LightPulse LP8000 PCI fibre channel host adapter has been selected by IBM Corp. (NYSE:IBM) for use in its Shark Enterprise Storage Server (ESS) to provide the target connection for systems configured with a fibre channel or FICON interface.

IBM's Shark features fibre channel connectivity for IBM RS/6000, RS/6000 SP, NUMA-Q and Intel-based servers running Windows NT platforms. IBM's Shark ESS provides up to 11 terabytes of high performance, scalable storage for S/390, AS400, Unix, Novell NetWare and Windows NT environments.

"Because our Shark Enterprise Storage Server is so scalable and built for open storage networks, we placed great demands on the fibre channel interface controller," said Dean Underwood, manager of open storage systems and strategy at IBM.

"We selected the LP8000 because of its comprehensive feature set, flexible architecture, and high performance. In addition, it is the only controller available that supports the FICON protocol," he added.

"We are pleased to announce yet another major development in our close relationship with IBM," stated Paul Folino, president and chief executive officer at Emulex Corp. "The Shark Enterprise Storage System has been a great success for IBM and with the introduction of the fibre channel/FICON system, IBM is poised for further success," he added.

Emulex LightPulse Host Adapters

Emulex has a broad family of fibre channel products designed to address the needs of mission-critical Enterprise applications. The market-leading LP8000 delivers world-class performance and unmatched interoperability for loop and switched SANs.

This 64-bit PCI-based host adapter provides a unique combination of features, including:

--  full fabric support using F_Port and FL_Port connections
--  hardware context cache for superior fabric performance
--  support for multiple protocols (SCSI, IP, SB-2 and VI)
--  high data integrity
--  full-duplex data transfers for up to 200MB/s bandwidth

The LP8000 also features data buffering to support up to 100km cabling, support for all fibre channel topologies and support for multiple service classes (2 and 3).

The LP8000 provides customers with flexibility to support a full range of cabling options, including copper, multi-mode fiber or single-mode fiber. The LP8000 is supported by a rich suite of software, providing support for storage protocol (SCSI), network protocol (IP), as well as multi-protocol (SCSI & IP) operation, enabling advanced SAN and network applications.

Emulex provides a wide range of operating system support, including Windows 2000 and Windows NT, Solaris Operating Environment, AIX and NetWare.

The LP8000 is part of a broad family of fibre channel products offered by Emulex to address the needs of both mission-critical enterprise applications and open systems computing.

The Emulex fibre channel family also includes the company's PCI-based 64-bit, 66 MHz LP9000 and LP950 host adapters, the high-performance LP7000E and open-server LP850 host adapters, the new 2Gb/s LP9002 host adapter family, the Sbus-based LP8000S host adapter and the industry's first digital re-timing hub, the LH5000 series.

About The Shark Enterprise Storage Server

The "Shark" Enterprise Storage Server is the high performance disk storage solution from IBM, the world leader in storage systems, software, services and technology. Built on the foundation of IBM's Seascape Storage Enterprise Architecture, "Shark" works with Windows NT, UNIX, Novell NetWare, S/390 and AS/400 -- and with a variety of interfaces, including Fibre Channel, Ultra SCSI and ESCON.

"Shark" incorporates IBM unique technology such as Parallel Access Volumes (PAV) currently unavailable in competing systems from EMC, Hitachi Data Systems and Compaq. For more information on the Enterprise Storage Server and its performance advantages over competing products, visit www.ibm.com/storage.> About Emulex

Emulex Corp. is a leading designer, developer and supplier of a broad line of fibre channel host adapters, hubs, ASICs and software products that provide connectivity solutions for fibre channel storage area networks (SANs), network attached storage (NAS) and RAID.

The company's products are based on internally developed ASIC technology, and are deployable across a variety of SAN configurations and operating systems, enhancing data flow between computers and peripherals.

Emulex products offer customers the unique combination of critical reliability, scalability and high performance, and can be customized for mission-critical server and storage system applications. Emulex products have been selected by the world's leading server and storage providers, including Compaq, EMC, Fujitsu-Siemens, Groupe Bull, Hewlett-Packard, Hitachi Data Systems, IBM, NEC and Unisys.

In addition, Emulex includes industry leaders Brocade, Intel, McDATA, Microsoft, Legato and Veritas among its strategic partners.