McDATA Corporation, the expert provider of multi-capable storage networking solutions, announced today that it has entered into a reseller agreement with NEC Corporation's High Performance Computing division for McDATA's award-winning Intrepid(TM) 6000 Series Directors. McDATA will begin shipments to NEC immediately. Demand for storage systems for use in SANs and similar environments continues to grow, and this agreement represents a significant sales expansion potential for McDATA in the Japanese market. "McDATA is very pleased to be working with NEC to deliver ultra-high availability storage networks through its High Performance Computing division," said Alain Andreoli, executive vice president of worldwide sales, McDATA. "As the demand for McDATA's multi-capable storage networking solutions increases throughout the world, it's important we partner with leading companies to bring these solutions to market." In addition to selecting McDATA products for its advanced SX supercomputer series, NEC Corporation will deploy Intrepid Directors for scientific computing systems supported by their iStorage solutions -- ideal for a wide range of system environments from workgroup and department servers to very large scale systems. Qualifying tests for the McDATA products have been underway since January this year, and real-world environment operating tests have been completed in overseas research institutes. According to Makoto Tsukakoshi, general manager of the HPC Marketing Promotion Division in NEC's 1st Computers Operations Unit, deploying McDATA's award-winning Intrepid Directors in NEC systems will enable solid, high-quality storage solutions for customers in the HPC field.