ENGINEERING

ALISO VIEJO, CA -- QLogic Corp. (Nasdaq:QLGC), an end-to-end storage area network (SAN) infrastructure provider, today announced that it has formed a consortium of vendors committed to developing open, interoperable 2Gb Fibre Channel solutions for Storage Area Networks (SANs). 2Gb Fibre Channel devices deliver twice the performance of 1Gb legacy products, at dramatically lower costs, while protecting customers' existing SAN investments by maintaining seamless compatibility with the enormous installed base of current 1Gb Fibre Channel devices. The presence of 2 Gig-ready SANs are expected to fuel continued high growth currently being experienced in the SAN marketplace. Companies who have agreed to develop 2Gb products that interoperate with QLogic SANblade(TM) host bus adapters (HBAs) and SANbox(TM) switches include: Acer, ADIC, ATTO, BakBone Software, Broadband Storage, BMC Software, Chaparral Network Storage, CommVault Systems, Computer Associates, Crossroads, DataCore Software, DataDirect Networks, Dell, Eurologic Systems, FalconStor, Hitachi Data Systems, IBM, INRANGE Technologies, LSI Logic, Legato Systems, Inc., Network Appliance, Nishan Systems, Overland Data, Prisa Networks, Quantum ATL, Seagate Technology, Spectra Logic, StorageTek, Sun Microsystems, Tivoli Systems, VERITAS Software, Vixel, XIOtech and Zzyzx Peripherals. "As an industry-leading SAN provider, Sun is committed to supporting open industry standards through initiatives like QLogic's 2Gb Developers' Consortium," said Kathleen Holmgren, vice president, Sun Network Storage. "These industry initiatives ensure that IT professionals benefit from the latest advancements in Fibre Channel technology like higher price-performance ratios, improved interoperability and legacy SAN protection." With an enormously broad selection of products, members of the QLogic 2 Gigabit Developers' Consortium are delivering all the storage, servers, chips, boards, switches, software, components and support necessary to serve the insatiable storage networking needs of workgroups, enterprises and large data centers. This broad range of high-performance 2Gb products allows IT departments to build high-performance, plug-and-play SANs that are centrally managed and highly available. The new generation of Fibre Channel components doubles SAN performance, running at 2 Gigabits-per-second, while protecting existing 1Gb Fibre Channel SAN investments with auto negotiating features that enable seamless communication with 1Gb legacy devices. In addition, 2Gb products are based on higher port densities. With products evolving from 1Gb designs based on 4-port Application-Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs) to 2Gb 16-port ASICs, more powerful silicon is available for smaller form factor designs such as 1U devices that are now becoming prevalent in the industry, as well as embedded HBA and switch applications. "Now that end-to-end 2Gb products have started to make their way into the market, OEMs, VARs and IT executives can begin to design 2Gb technology into their storage networking plans," said Mark Edwards, senior vice president of QLogic Corporation. "As these customers migrate their SANs to the 2Gb infrastructure to harness this new level of performance, they can take comfort in knowing these products interoperate and integrate seamlessly with their current SAN investments." Interoperability between 2Gb and 1Gb Fibre Channel products is facilitated by open industry standards such as those developed by the American National Standards Institute's (ANSI) T11 committee and voluntary certification by the SANmark program run under the auspices of the Fibre Channel Industry Association (FCIA). For additional information visit www.qlogic.com