ACADEMIA

SAN DIEGO, CA -- JNI® Corporation (Nasdaq: JNIC), the first company to introduce 10 Gb InfiniBand® HCA Modules, and Lane15™ Software, the leading provider of InfiniBand management software, today announced a strategic alliance covering the use of Lane15 technology with JNI HCA Modules and future InfiniBand software products. The strategic alliance covers several general areas of business and cooperation: • Lane15 Fabric Management Suite on JNI HCA Modules and Products -- Lane15 and JNI will provide seamless integration with the Lane15 Fabric Manager for current and future JNI InfiniStar™ HCA Modules as well as future JNI bridging products, such as products bridging InfiniBand to Fibre Channel storage networks. The Lane15 software delivers a consistent interface and management suite for underlying InfiniBand hardware and operating systems, masking system-specific details through a common foundation. • Cross-Product Development for Windows Environments -- JNI and Lane15 will develop software and solutions enabling JNI products to run in Windows cluster environments. As part of that agreement, Lane15 will provide a virtual interface (VI) driver stack for Windows 2000 running on JNI HCA Modules. This will enable JNI InfiniBand products to operate transparently in Windows clustered environments, including database environments utilizing VI. • Joint Sales and Marketing and Sales Activities -- JNI and Lane15 will participate in each other's industry alliances, with Lane15 joining JNI's IBpartner™ program; while JNI will join the Lane15 InfiniTeam™ Solution Alliance. The two companies will also cooperate on joint appearances at trade shows, and other marketing activities, plus joint sales efforts where applicable. • Long-Term Joint Development -- JNI and Lane15 will work jointly on long-term InfiniBand-related developments as the market evolves and matures. "This is a great deal for each company. JNI gets key software and integration into the Lane15 management suite; while Lane15 partners with a strong, innovative player with ongoing access to all the major server and storage players in the industry," said Steve Duplessie, senior analyst and founder, The Enterprise Storage Group. "This deal is an example of the growing ecosystem of companies readying to deliver real InfiniBand products in late 2002 and 2003." "This alliance leverages Lane15's considerable InfiniBand software knowledge with JNI's experience producing and supporting mission critical products for the enterprise data center," said Neal Waddington, president and CEO of JNI Corporation. "Together, we can turn today's Windows servers into clustered environments using the InfiniBand Architecture." "JNI offers the strength, expertise and innovative approach that can propel InfiniBand out of the test center and into the data center," said Alisa Nessler, CEO of Lane15 Software. "Lane15 management software manages the complexities of InfiniBand networks while making them transparent to present operations. In this way existing applications can run over an IB network without modification. Data centers can make evolutionary changes without disruption of their current processes." JNI now has strategic alliances with some of the key players providing the major infrastructure components for InfiniBand, including host channel adapters (IBM and Mellanox); switches (InfiniSwitch); and management software (Lane15 Software). "JNI now has company alliances providing all of the major building blocks required to build complete InfiniBand-based clustered server solutions with today's servers," Waddington said. For more information visit www.jni.com