McDATA Certifies JNI Corporation Host Bus Adapters for Solaris Servers and Novell Netware in Storage Networks

Business Wire, April 23, 2001

Business Editors and High-Tech Writers

SAN DIEGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 23, 2001

JNI First with Qualifications for Sun Solaris in Dual-Port SBus,

PCI HBAs; Qualifies Single-Port HBAs for Novell NetWare

JNI(R) Corporation (Nasdaq:JNIC), a leading supplier of Fibre Channel host bus adapters for the enterprise storage market, today announced its dual-port FibreStar(R) Fibre Channel host bus adapters (HBAs) are the first dual-port HBAs to be qualified by McDATA Corporation (Nasdaq:MCDT/MCDTA) for storage network installations running under Sun Solaris. The qualification covers SBus and PCI for Solaris. McDATA also qualified one of JNI's single-port HBAs on the Novell NetWare platform.

The dual-port host bus adapters qualified by McDATA for Solaris are JNI's Emerald(TM)-based FibreStar FCE2-6412 dual-port, 64-bit, 66MHz PCI-to-Fibre Channel and FCE2-1063 dual-port, 64-bit, 25MHz SBus-to-Fibre Channel host bus adapters. Both feature a unique dual-channel design using two JNI Emerald application specific integrated circuit (ASIC) controllers operating independently on each HBA -- which effectively provides two full-featured Fibre Channel ports in one slot. This offers increased port count per server, an important factor in enterprise-level storage networks. The dual-port HBAs provide a lower price-per-port when compared with two independent HBAs, yet provide identical features and performance because of their unique, dual independent channel design.

In addition, JNI's single-port FCE-6410 has been qualified by McDATA for storage networks running under the Novell NetWare operating system. The Emerald-based FCE-6410 is now qualified by McDATA on two operating system platforms, Solaris and Novell NetWare.

"Our OpenReady Solutions qualification program recognizes `best in breed' products that have passed our stringent testing criteria," said Jeff Vogel, McDATA's vice president of solutions and systems integration services. "JNI's products have proven their enterprise-class reliability in the most mission-critical, high availability environments. JNI's HBAs offer our customers very high levels of performance and quality for ever-ready connectivity."

"This qualification continues to affirm JNI as the adapter of choice for enterprise class SANs," said Neal Waddington, president and CEO of JNI. "Our track record of quality, reliability and interoperability speaks for itself. We're pleased to continue our work with McDATA in offering extensible SAN solutions."

"JNI continues to qualify its Emerald-based HBAs on multiple operating systems with all the major vendors in the storage network industry, demonstrating our growing success with this new product platform and our common code base drivers used on our products," said Waddington.

JNI Emerald-based FibreStar HBAs and related DriverSuite(TM) software operate under all major operating systems across all major Unix and PC-server-based platforms. This interoperability helps to reduce the number of adapters supported in heterogenous environments, simplifying their installation and ensuring complete interoperability between different sets of platforms and servers. For these reasons, JNI is widely recognized as the provider of choice for heterogeneous SANs.

About McDATA

McDATA (Nasdaq:MCDT/MCDTA) (www.mcdata.com) is a global leader in open storage networking solutions. Recognized for its highly available, scalable and centrally managed SANs, McDATA's family of solutions represent the backbone of the SAN industry and address enterprise-storage problems. The company's enterprise-to-edge SAN solutions improve the reliability and availability of data to simplify SAN management and reduce the total cost of ownership. Committed to the highest level of service in the industry, McDATA extensively pre-tests SAN solutions to provide IT organizations with the comprehensive tools, methodologies and support essential to robust and timely SAN implementations. McDATA distributes its products through its OEMs, network of resellers and Elite Solution Partners. McDATA is a registered trademark. The McDATA logo and McDATA tagline are trademarks of McDATA Corporation.

About JNI Corporation

JNI Corporation is a leading manufacturer of enterprise-level products used to create storage networks, and is the dominant manufacturer of host bus adapters (HBAs) for the Solaris environment. JNI offers a broad line of FibreStar(R) HBAs, Emerald(TM) ASICs, and EZ Fibre(TM) and DriverSuite(TM) software for SANs. JNI's products operate on Solaris, Windows 2000, Windows NT, HP-UX, AIX, Novell, Linux and Mac OS systems. JNI customers, distributors and strategic partners include Acal FCS, Avid, Bell Microproducts, Brocade, Chaparral, Compaq StorageWorks, Consan, Crossroads, EMC, Eurologic, Gadzoox, GE Access, Hewlett-Packard, Hitachi Data Systems, IBM, Info X, LSI Logic, McDATA, Nishan Systems, StorageTek, Sun Microsystems, TidalWire and Veritas. Company headquarters are in San Diego, with offices throughout the U.S. and Munich (Munchen), Germany.