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Emulex Corporation, the industry's preeminent source for a broad range of advanced storage networking infrastructure solutions, today announced its latest HBA drivers fully support Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1 (SP1) Release Candidate (RC). Emulex customers can use the HBA drivers immediately to see the benefits, including first-time support for AMD and Intel's EM64T technology. "Emulex has worked closely with Microsoft, AMD and Intel to develop and test drivers that ensure our HBAs work smoothly for Windows customers installing Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1 and transitioning to hardware server platforms," said Mike Smith, executive vice president of worldwide marketing at Emulex Corp. "Emulex customers enjoy a highly flexible approach-one driver works across all of their HBAs. This unique feature of our drivers makes the upgrade experience much easier for Emulex customers." Included in the Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1 Release Candidate is a 64-bit version of the Emulex Storport driver. Emulex recognized the high value associated with the Microsoft Storport driver inherently part of the Windows Server 2003 platform and therefore took the approach of pursuing a full "from the ground up" design implementation with its new Storport miniport HBA driver. This approach compliments Emulex's Service Level Interface (SLI), firmware-upgradeable HBA architecture design, and ensures that Emulex HBA users can derive the maximum level of benefits offered by Storport today and seamlessly integrate future Storport functionality. For Intel's x86 or Itanium processors, the Windows Server 2003 SP1 Release Candidate includes the updated Emulex SCSIport miniport driver. In addition, the Emulex website offers upgraded versions of Windows drivers for the Windows Server 2003 SP1 RC. Customers and OEMs testing with the Windows Server 2003 SP1 RC can test with the Emulex driver immediately. Emulex drivers are available at http://www.emulex.com/ts/docfc/winframe.htm. "Windows Server 2003 SP1 is a significant upgrade, enhancing the security and flexibility of our storage solutions," said Dr. Claude Lorenson, technical product manager, Windows Server Division at Microsoft Corp. "Working with storage industry partners like Emulex helps ensure that Windows Server 2003 customers get a reliable, consistent and scalable Windows SAN experience." In addition to the latest updates for Windows Server 2003, SP1 adds new features and enhancements to Windows Server 2003 designed to enhance security, improve reliability, and simplify administration. Windows Server 2003 SP1 augments Windows Server 2003 and constitutes a shift in the server security paradigm. Windows Server 2003 SP1 can be installed on either existing or newly installed Windows Server 2003 servers. The robust features of Emulex's LightPulse HBAs provide the flexibility and broad interoperability needed for complex, highly scalable heterogeneous SANs. Emulex solutions include a unique firmware architecture that is fully software compatible with previous generations of the company's HBAs.