Product Watch: Intel Unveils 1.13 Gigahertz Chip. NEC Announces Express5800 Server. Quantum Announces Fireball Plus AS.

August 4, 2000

SHORT TAKES

INTEL UNVEILS 1.13 GIGAHERTZ CHIP

Santa Clara, CA — Intel Corp. introduced a Pentium III processor running faster than one gigahertz, beating rival Advanced Micro Devices Inc. to the punch for bragging rights to the speediest computer chip on the market. AMD earlier this year beat Intel to the market by a few days with the first chip to run at one gigahertz, and plans to begin shipping a 1.1 gigahertz chip on Aug. 28. Processors are the “brains” of personal computers. One measure of their performance is the “clock speed,” measured in hertz, or cycles per second. Intel’s new Pentium runs at 1.13 gigahertz, or 1.13 billion cycles per second. Intel and other chipmakers, who typically get much of their profits from such high-end chips, have accelerated the introduction of faster chips because of breakthrough manufacturing technologies. Much of the existing software on the market today requires far less processing power than the fastest chips provide, although the new chips demonstrably speed up games and graphics.

The new 1.13 gigahertz chip is priced at $990 when shipping in units of 1,000 to computer manufacturers, although Intel noted it will be available only in limited quantities. Because of production problems, Intel has made few of the gigahertz chips it introduced earlier this year. Santa Clara, Calif.-based Intel later this year will begin shipping a Pentium 4 chip that initially runs at 1.4 gigahertz, while AMD will begin shipping its first Athlon processors for notebook computers.

NEC ANNOUNCES EXPRESS5800 SERVER

Sacramento, CA — NEC Computers Inc., a leading provider of mobile, desktop and server computing solutions for the enterprise market, today announced the NEC Express5800/140Hb server, an architecturally advanced 4-processor capable Intel Pentium III Xeon-based server for small to medium application-intensive enterprises. The Express5800/140Hb server scored as one of the fastest servers among leading 4-processor servers in a recent TPC-C benchmark test conducted by the Transaction Processing Performance Council. The Express5800/140Hb server is ideal for growing small to medium enterprises running mission-critical commercial or technical applications, ASPs/ISPs and university environments.”The 140Hb server is the viable solution for growing enterprises,” said Stephen Blanchette, vice president and general manager of NEC Computers Inc.’s Server Business Unit. “With its advanced architecture and superior performance, the Express5800/140Hb highlights NEC Computers’ leadership in server technology by delivering comprehensive server-based computing solutions to our customers.”

The Express5800/140Hb server provides increased expandability and flexible packaging as either a tower or a 7U rack-mount chassis. It includes 8 PCI slots, 6 hot-swap slots, up to 10 x 1 hot-swap hard-disk drives and 16GB of error-correcting SDRAM. It also features integrated remote-management capabilities for remote emergency access and control of server resources, thereby eliminating the need for add-in management boards. The Express5800/140Hb server displayed superior speed performance in a recent TPC-C benchmark test among leading 4-processor equipped servers, producing over 30,000 transactions per minute (tpmC). The TPC-C benchmark simulates a complete computing environment where a population of terminal operators executes transactions against a database. The benchmark is modeled after the principal activities of an order-entry environment. These transactions include entering and delivering orders, recording payments, checking the status of orders, and monitoring the level of stock at warehouses. While the TPC-C benchmark is designed to portray the activity of a wholesale supplier, it can help benchmark server performance requirements for industries that must manage, sell, or distribute a product or service.

INTEL TO MAKE CHIPS THAT CAN USE NON-RAMBUS DESIGNS

New York, N.Y. — Intel Corp. said it was designing a chipset for its upcoming Pentium 4 processors that will support new types of memory technology, ending its exclusive supply relationship with Rambus Inc. Rambus’s stock dropped 11-1/4, or more than 13 percent, to 73-3/4 as one of the most heavily traded issues on the Nasdaq stock market in morning trading. “Over time, we plan to produce another chipset that will go along with Pentium 4 that will allow for additional platforms…to help give our customers more choice in pricing,” Intel spokesman Michael Sullivan said. A Rambus spokesman acknowledged Intel’s decision, but said it still is the principal memory design provider for Intel’s chipsets. “We have always known that Intel continuously evaluates the performance of various types of memory and considers the availability of each one,” said Avo Kanadjian, vice president of worldwide marketing at Rambus.

The price of Rambus-based designs, called RDRAM (Rambus Dynamic Random Access Memory), are dropping, which should grow the technology’s market share, Kanadjian said. Intel also still considers RDRAM as its “primary road map” for memory technology, Sullivan said. The first line of Intel’s Pentium 4 is scheduled to go on sale later this year, with the chipset that supports non-Rambus memory set for release in 2001, Sullivan said. Kanadjian declined to comment on the drop in Rambus’ share price, saying the company did not comment on market activity.

QUANTUM ANNOUNCES LAUNCH OF FIREBALL PLUS AS

London, ENGLAND — Quantum`s Hard Disk Drive Group announced the launch of its Fireball Plus AS, the 10th generation of its 90-million-selling Fireball family, and the industry`s first 20 GB per platter, 7200 RPM high-performance desktop drive. The new drive is designed to handle demanding applications including design software, desktop publishing solutions and multimedia suites, as well as to provide fast access to the internet for e-commerce, online gaming, and MP3 downloads. Building on Quantum`s reputation for providing reliable, quiet, value and performance-class storage solutions, the Fireball Plus AS uses a new firmware- caching scheme that is projected to demonstrate a 15 per cent WinBench performance improvement over its predecessor, the Fireball Plus LM. This significant performance increase is accomplished through a combination of 8.5 ms average seek times, a 2 MB buffer, and the new Quantum-developed Ultra ATA/100 interface – the third generation of patented, hard drive interface technology, capable of delivering a data throughput rate of 100 megabytes per second.

Eddy Scheers, Marketing Manager for Quantum`s European Personal Computing Storage Division comments: “The new Fireball Plus AS offers a significant increase in throughput and capacity, as well as dramatic improvements in acoustics for the performance-focused market. Hot on the heals of the new Fireball lct 20, the Plus AS completes Quantum`s `20/20 vision` by bringing two compelling 20 GB per platter desktop products to market.” Visit http://www.quantum.com for more information.

COMPAQ ADDS BROCADE PRODUCT LINE

San Jose, CA — Brocade Communications Systems, Inc., a leading supplier of Fibre Channel fabric solutions for Storage Area Networking, announced that Compaq Computer Corporation has expanded its OEM partnership with Brocade and now offers the entry-level Brocade SilkWorm 2040 8-port Fibre Channel fabric switch to Compaq customers. The Compaq-branded product, known as the Compaq StorageWorks Fibre Channel SAN Switch 8/EL, is available immediately, worldwide. With this announcement, Compaq now offers the spectrum of Brocade products to its enterprise storage customers: the entry-level SilkWorm 2040, the 8-port SilkWorm 2400 and the 16-port SilkWorm 2800. The SilkWorm 2040 provides full fabric connectivity for entry-level standalone storage area networks (SANs) and offers edge device connectivity for larger SAN environments, providing customers with a scalable networking foundation for storage environments. The Brocade entry-level product line is designed for customers making an initial investment in SANs, offering optimal price performance combined with a common management structure and industry-standard Fibre Channel fabric functionality.

“Brocade is pleased that Compaq has expanded its StorageWorks Fibre Channel SAN Switch product line to include our entry-level, full-fabric SilkWorm Fibre Channel switches, which provide a cost-effective entry point for customers who require the functionality of a full-fabric SAN,” said Jack Cuthbert, Brocade vice president of Worldwide Marketing. “The continued investment by Brocade and Compaq in our OEM relationship furthers the options, flexibility, and investment protection for our mutual SAN customers.” “We are delighted to expand our partnership with Brocade. With the addition of the Brocade entry-level fabric switch product line, we can offer our customers the widest array of storage networking options to best suit their needs,” said Darren Thomas, vice president of Compaq’s Multi-vendor Storage Business Unit. “As Compaq continues to expand our leadership in open standards-based storage solutions, our partnership with Brocade will help us offer our customers the highest level of investment protection, scalability, and reliability for their SAN environments.”

GIGANET ANNOUNCES VI/IP

Concord, MASS. — Giganet, Inc. a leader in VI-based data center networks, announced VI/IP, the industry’s first Virtual Interface (VI) Architecture-based networking over standard Ethernet. By combining the high throughput and low overhead of VI with the standard infrastructure of today’s IP networks, VI/IP can double application throughput while reducing to one fifth the computing resources needed to deliver data in environments such as network-attached storage (NAS). The VI/IP products are expected to greatly improve application performance and scalability over Ethernet networks, preserving customer’s investments in existing infrastructure. Storage networking environments typically support demanding Internet applications and have communication requirements that hinge on the rapid and constant transfer of high volumes of data. By implementing VI-based networking through VI/IP, enterprises can break the bottlenecks that degrade an application’s performance running in typical data center environments. NAS devices attached to VI-enhanced Ethernet networks will deliver more data to more users faster. To speed the development of optimized VI/IP products for network storage environments, Giganet has entered into a joint development relationship with Network Appliance, Inc. (see related announcement today, “Giganet and Network Appliance Form Joint Development Partnership”).

“We believe that VI-based storage networking architectures will provide tremendous performance advantages for today’s mission-critical applications,” said Mark Santora, senior vice president of marketing, Network Appliance. “Giganet’s experience in implementing VI networking protocols into hardware is integral to Network Appliance’s strategy of supporting open storage networking standards, developing future high-performance protocol proposals like Direct Access File System (DAFS) and leveraging VI over Ethernet.” With Giganet’s VI/IP products, server-to-storage and server-to-server traffic can seamlessly integrate with client-to-server traffic and be carried efficiently on a single IP-based standard system area network. In order to help the market take advantage of VI over IP capabilities, Giganet has submitted a VI/TCP proposal to the IETF. Cisco Systems, a leading proponent of standards-based IP networking welcomes Giganet’s VI/IP strategy. “Cisco is focused on delivering open, standards-based IP networking solutions that allow customers to quickly and cost-effectively incorporate emerging technologies to create the network architecture best suited to their changing needs,” said Cisco Enterprise Solutions Marketing Manager Kacey Carpenter. “We support Giganet’s efforts to promote the standardization of VI over TCP/IP, and see it as a solid step toward creating a converged IP storage networking architecture that supports a breadth of enterprise applications.”

EMC SHATTERS RECORDS WITH NETWORK-ATTACHED STORAGE

Hopkinton, MASS. — Meeting the demands imposed by Internet-driven growth for rapid information sharing, EMC Corporation today announced that its EMC Celerra network file server has achieved ratings of at least triple the performance of the closest competitive NAS (network-attached storage) offerings, according to the most recent ratings posted by Standard Performance Evaluation Corporation (SPEC). SPEC is a non-profit corporation formed to establish, maintain and endorse a standardized set of relevant computing benchmarks ( http://www.spec.org/ ). EMC Celerra, the world’s most highly available, scalable and fastest NAS connectivity solution, has been enhanced to increase overall system performance by more than 60% over its previous version. This enhancement dramatically improves network connectivity to an organization’s information infrastructure. In the first six months of 2000, EMC revenue from NAS deployments rose nearly tenfold compared with the first half of 1999, making EMC the fastest-growing participant in this emerging market segment.

“The new economy has become the `now’ economy as people demand immediate access to increasing amounts of information,” said Jim Rothnie, EMC’s Senior Vice President of Product Management. “Today, EMC is answering that demand by providing the fastest network access available to information living on the world’s most secure and highly scalable storage foundation. Celerra’s high-performance capabilities work within the EMC Enterprise Storage Network to deliver an information infrastructure capable of managing the data needs of a Net-driven market.” First introduced in October 1996, Celerra is an integrated part of the EMC Enterprise Storage Network, connecting clients on the local- or wide-area network either to a storage area network (SAN) or directly to EMC Symmetrix Enterprise Storage systems, for seamless file sharing and management. Continued Rothnie, “Suppliers who sell network attached storage as appliances have repeatedly made the mistake of building storage directly into the appliance itself. This may be adequate when deployed on a small scale, but it quickly turns to chaos at the multi-terabyte enterprise level. In the early ’90s, forward-looking companies recognized the value of consolidating their information into one easily protected and managed storage infrastructure. Celerra’s diskless architecture takes advantage of this now-accepted model by providing the benefits of NAS without the disadvantages of separate, isolated pools of data.”

TURBOLINUX LAUNCHES DATASERVER WITH IBM DATABASE

San Francisco, CA — TurboLinux, Inc., the high-performance Linux company, announced the availability of TurboLinux DataServer integrated with IBM’s DB2 Universal Database, the first commercial offering of Linux and an enterprise-class database solution. TurboLinux DataServer with IBM DB2 Universal Database delivers the performance and ironclad security of the TurboLinux operating system integrated with the power and speed of IBM’s DB2 database for optimal backend server functionality. DB2 Universal Database is the industry’s first multimedia, Web-ready relational database management system robust enough to meet the demands of large corporations and flexible enough to serve small and medium-sized businesses. “Databases are the real engines behind e-business,” said T. Paul Thomas, president and CEO of TurboLinux. “By integrating IBM’s industry-leading DB2 Universal Database solution with our optimized Linux operating system, we are providing affordable and reliable e-business infrastructure for business-to-business and business-to-consumer providers.”

“In today’s new economy, the ability to access information is crucial, especially for dynamic Web sites,” said Scott Handy, director, Linux Solutions Marketing, IBM Software. “We’ve worked closely with TurboLinux to ensure maximum integration of our award-winning DB2 Universal Database, bringing customers the tools necessary to mine for information on the Web. This announcement further enhances IBM’s partnership with TurboLinux for hardware, software and services for Linux in small and medium-sized businesses, as well as the enterprise.” TurboLinux DataServer with IBM DB2 Universal Database is built for reliability and availability and includes a five-user license of the IBM DB2 Universal Database Workgroup edition. The TurboLinux operating system has been optimized to boost performance of IBM’s DB2 Universal Database with features such as 4GB RAM addressable space, support for raw I/O devices and an integrated JAVA Runtime Environment.

BAKBONE LAUNCHES NETVAULT IN NORTH AMERICA

San Diego, CA — Beginning today, companies throughout North America, faced with exponentially growing data storage needs, have a new software solution to help them solve the challenges of securing their most important data more easily than ever before. BakBone Software has announced the introduction of its NetVault storage management software to the North American market, saying the software is designed to help enterprises confidently handle their storage needs, both today and in the future. NetVault is centralized enterprise storage management software, featuring the ability to easily manage the most intensive backup, restore and archiving functions across a wide range of computer platforms. NetVault’s scalable, advanced modular architecture operates across distributed heterogeneous client/server and multi-user environments, and is specifically designed for the next generation of network storage applications, such as storage area networks (SANs), as well as today’s requirements.

“NetVault is being used in real-world situations at companies such as Sony, Toshiba, Deutsche Bundesposte and NEC, as a product capable of managing the backup and restore functions for mission-critical applications and databases,” said Tony Cerqueira, BakBone Software’s Chief Executive Officer. “Beginning today, we’re launching NetVault in North America, enabling companies here to enjoy the same benefits that their counterparts around the world already have.” Those benefits include unparalleled ease of installation, cross-platform scalability (including Windows NT, UNIX, and Linux) ranging from the workgroups to enterprise-level installations, and a modular architecture that can easily be customized with plug-in functionality, enabling it to superbly perform in a storage area network (SAN) environment. In 1997, NetVault was spun off to the group of developers in the United Kingdom who initially designed the software and had consistently upgraded it. From there, NetVault was commercially marketed in Europe and in Japan, where it has achieved a market-leading position. Earlier this year, BakBone Software acquired the rights to NetVault, in preparation for the official launch. “The exponential growth of disk storage requires a similar growth in backup to tape,” commented Aberdeen Group research director, David Hill. “Yet even today, enterprises have a difficult time in backing up all of their critical data as often as is necessary. The problem – made worse by the storage growth – is that backup tends to be a complex process. It should not be. Backup should be easy. NetVault solves that problem for IS administrators throughout the backup life cycle from initial implementation through the never-ending configurations to problem resolution. IT organizations should definitely consider NetVault.”

CALDERA LAUNCHES OPENLEARNING EDUCATION PROGRAMS

Orem, UTAH — Caldera Systems Inc. launched its Linux education programs and courseware – Caldera OpenLearning. OpenLearning is a series of comprehensive education programs that include instructor-led training and multimedia courseware targeting eSolutions Providers (eSPs). eSPs are VARs, ISPs, ASPs, consultants, MIS professionals – anyone providing eBusiness solutions for their customers. OpenLearning offers the new OpenLinux Solutions Series and three certification courses that support Linux Professional Institute (LPI) Level One certification. Caldera OpenLearning Courseware is available through OpenLearning Providers at 206 locations worldwide.

“What sets us apart is that we’re taking education to eSPs through OpenLearning Providers worldwide,” said Ransom Love, president and chief executive officer for Caldera Systems Inc. “We don’t expect people to come to our headquarters for education. Additionally, because our certification courses are industry-standard, we prepare users of any Linux distribution for LPI certification.” The new OpenLinux Solutions Series is designed to educate and train IT professionals in how to deploy and manage specialized servers – servers optimized for specific functions like Web, DNS, DHCP, firewall, SAMBA and application servers. The series consists of one- and two-day courses. Caldera provides complete Linux education with instructor-led courses and multimedia methods such as computer-based training (CBT). Earlier this month, the company released “Quick Start to Linux”, a CBT for professionals and personal computer users evaluating Linux as a desktop or business solution. The company will release other CBTs and multimedia products in the near future.

QUALSTAR EXPANDS AUTOMATED TAPE LIBRARY FAMILY

Canoga Park, CA — Qualstar Corporation introduces the latest member of their highly successful TLS-4000 Series of Automated Tape Libraries. The Model 412600 houses up to twelve tape drives and 600 data tapes. The 412600 is expressly designed for the over-crowded data centers that most enterprise users are struggling with. Leveraging the high-density packaging techniques introduced in the successful 412360 and 412180 models, the 412600 packs up to 15 Terabytes into each square foot of floor space, using AIT-2 tape technology. Each 412600 can house up to twelve tape drives, delivering data throughput rates exceeding 670 Gigabytes per hour, to meet the most data-intensive backup and archive requirements.

Like most TLS-Series tape libraries, the 412600 is a SANSmart library. Offering one or two 100 MB/second Fibre Channel connections, the 412600 supports all SAN topologies and the latest LAN-free and serverless backup and storage management applications. “Our new model extends the TLS-4000 family that we introduced so successfully five years ago to larger enterprise users,” noted Bob Covey, Qualstar’s Vice President of Marketing. “By using common electronics, servo systems, power systems and other major components, we can deliver field-proven reliability from the first shipments of a new model. Our robust all leadscrew-driven robotic design has demonstrated superior reliability. The TLS-4000 Series has a proven reliability record, with thousands of units installed worldwide.” The TLS-4000 Series is one of the broadest tape library families in the industry. Thirteen models operate with a single interface, sharing common mechanics, electronics, and major components. Offering capacities from 300 Gigabytes (native) to over 78 Terabytes (with typical compression) and throughput exceeding 670 GB/hour, the TLS-4000 Series provides the widest range of capacity and performance choices to meet virtually any storage need, whether backing up a single server or as an integral part of an enterprise-wide storage management solution.

CHAPARRAL MARKETS ULTRA 160 RAID CONTROLLERS

Longmont, COLO — Chaparral Network Storage, Inc., a leader in storage networking solutions, announced it is now shipping its third-generation Ultra 160 RAID controllers. Chaparral’s G-Series Ultra 160 RAID controllers, which include the G7324 and G6322 models, offer unmatched data availability and fault tolerance for mission critical applications. Chaparral is first to market with Ultra 160 RAID controllers, providing the advantages of Ultra 160 performance for today’s most demanding storage applications. “Performance is king, but not by itself,” said Michael Peterson, president of Strategic Research Corporation. “Chaparral’s new Ultra 160 RAID controllers provide the key features to meet the ever growing demand for more storage performance, including flexibility and fault tolerance.”

Chaparral’s third-generation G-Series RAID controllers are designed for mission critical applications requiring the highest levels of performance and data reliability. The Chaparral G7324 Fibre Channel-to-Ultra 160 SCSI offers continuous access to data and a seamless connection to Fibre Channel Storage Area Networks (SANs). The Chaparral G6322 Ultra 160-to-Ultra 160 ensures data availability in SCSI environments and offers flexible configurations to fit end-users’ particular storage needs. Both the Chaparral G7324 and G6322 feature dual controller Active-Active failover. Active-Active failover allows continuous operations should an individual controller fail and allows individual controllers to be taken off-line for firmware upgrade operations. This results in no downtime for maintenance operations, a key requirement for mission critical applications. “Chaparral’s ability to be first to market with products demonstrates its competitive edge, technical expertise and commitment to meeting end-user demands,” said Mike Hardy, vice president of marketing, Chaparral Network Storage, Inc. “Partners are already developing, and in some cases, shipping enclosures for Chaparral’s Ultra 160 RAID controllers, including JMR, Trimm and Kingston.”

SMART STORAGE ANNOUNCES SMARTSTOR VIRTUAL TOWER

Andover, MASS. — Smart Storage Inc., the leading provider of standards-based storage software for managing, accessing, and archiving information assets, today announced the release of SmartStor Virtual Tower. SmartStor Virtual Tower is a network-based software product that caches and compresses images from CD and DVD and stores it on available hard disk space. Using an existing Windows NT server, the low-cost product allows multiple users or departments to store, share, and access their favorite CDs and DVDs with the speed of hard disk. Gary Brach, president of Smart Storage, says, “Virtual Tower takes five minutes to install and is ideally suited for businesses that want to inexpensively share frequently used CDs/DVDs over the network. With Virtual Tower, legal libraries, engineering workgroups, LAN administrators, corporate libraries, and small offices can gain access to information on CD or DVD at hard disk speed.”

SmartStor Virtual Tower requires no proprietary hardware – users can use any CD/DVD drive to cache and compress images to any hard disk on their network. The software is specifically designed for organizations that need a high-performance, cost-effective solution for managing and sharing up to 100 CD/DVD titles. It significantly lowers the cost of ownership and overhead associated with maintaining and managing multiple storage devices. Users aren’t required to have a CD/DVD drive for every title that needs to be accessed – all that’s needed is the hard disk space to house the volume image. All data remains on-line for high speed, simultaneous access by multiple users. SmartStor Virtual Tower offers the following additional key features: Automatic CD/DVD recognition and sharing, configurable Volume security so permissions can be set to individual CD/DVD-ROMs or to multiple mount points, and optionally compresses images to maximize storage capacity.

STEELEYE DELIVERS WEB SERVER SOLUTION

Mountain View, CA — SteelEye Technology Inc., an emerging leader in reliability platforms for Linux-based applications, announced the release of the SteelEye High Availability (HA) Web Server solution for Apache, which combines SteelEye’s LifeKeeper clustering software for Linux with leading Web solutions. The bundled solution enables service providers and IT professionals to create highly available Web servers providing access to critical e-business systems. With low total cost of ownership and minimal training requirements, the SteelEye HA Web Server solution for Apache enables companies from small e-commerce businesses to large enterprises to leverage scalable industry-standard solutions. To ensure 24×7 system uptime, the SteelEye HA Web Server solution for Apache features intelligent n-way failover and multiple fault-detection mechanisms for detecting and recovering from hardware, component, or application faults to prevent full system or application failures.

“Our High Availability Web Server solution for Apache allows companies to focus on their critical business requirements, while we take care of their reliability needs,” said Boris Geller, VP of marketing at SteelEye. “This new offering ensures continuous Web server availability while providing a cost-effective industrial strength solution on Linux platforms.” Key features of the HA Web Server solution for Apache include an active/active configuration, which offers customers a higher return on their investment by eliminating the need for idle backup servers; significantly reduced staffing requirements through an easy-to-use centralized Java GUI; support for both shared and local disk storage configurations; data consistency maintenance through a high performance n-way data replication facility, combined with shared disk access and seamless failover for utmost data accessibility.

CITRIX ANNOUNCES NEW VERSION OF METAFRAME FOR UNIX

Fort Lauderdale, FLA — Citrix Systems, Inc. announced a new version of its application server software – Citrix MetaFrame 1.1 for UNIX Operating Systems. Version 1.1 will first be available in August, beginning with MetaFrame 1.1 for the Solaris Operating Environment, which provides added value for customers of Sun Microsystems, Inc. The features of version 1.1 will also be offered in new Citrix UNIX products for the IBM and HP operating systems later this year. Citrix has extended its products beyond MetaFrame for Windows to support the three market-leading UNIX Operating Systems. This is a key element in Citrix’s strategy to deliver high-speed access to any application, over any device, across any connection. New features in version 1.1 include: support for Sun’s Solaris 8, enhanced international support, improved access to applications via NFuse Web application portal, graphics copy and paste, and broader user authentication.

Citrix MetaFrame for UNIX Operating Systems extends the reach of business-critical UNIX and Sun’s Java applications across an enterprise, or from an Application Service Provider (ASP), to users anywhere, regardless of location, device or connection. Empowered by Citrix’s Independent Computing Architecture (ICA) technology, Citrix MetaFrame for UNIX Operating Systems shifts 100 percent of application processing to the server, resulting in very low bandwidth requirements, thus eliminating device restrictions typically encountered with emulation software. Citrix MetaFrame for UNIX Operating Systems is being utilized worldwide in companies including Deutsche Bank, Madison River Communications and Motorola. “We are expanding the Citrix MetaFrame for UNIX Operating Systems family in support of our strategy to extend our product line, as well as to increase the value we bring to enterprise customers and ASPs by enabling access to applications and information regardless of platform,” said Keith Turnbull, vice president of product development for Citrix. “Furthermore, with Citrix NFuse, both Windows and UNIX applications can be accessed via a single Web portal interface.”

NATIONAL SEMICONDUCTOR LAUNCHES 8-BIT ADC

Furstenfeldbruck, GERMANY — National Semiconductor has launched an exceptional 8-bit ADC (analog-to-digital converter) featuring no SINAD (Signal to Noise and Distortion) degradation throughout a sampling clock range from 20MSPS to 100MSPS. For a fixed input frequency of 10MHz, a flat SINAD of 47dB is maintained. At a 100MSPS clock, the ADC08100 also offers a superior signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of 46dB and low harmonic distortion (THD) of -54dB, with a 50MHz Nyquist input signal. “The ADC08100 is critical member of National’s high-speed A to D standard product family with its unique features. It’s also tremendously valuable as a flexible block for integration into next generation vertical market applications such as in imaging systems,” said Mark Holdaway, European Marketing Manager for National’s Data Conversion Systems Group.

Based on a switched capacitor bandgap design, the ADC08100’s power consumption is a linear function of the sample clock rate. Typically, the device consumes just 1.3mW per MHz, or 130 mW at 100 MHz sample clock. Its unique architecture also achieves exceptional dynamic performance of 7.5 effective bits (ENOB) with 10MHz input and 100MHz clock frequency. Excellent dynamic performance is maintained throughout the full range of input frequencies. The combination of low power consumption and excellent AC and DC characteristics makes the ADC08100 especially well suited for driving high-speed ASIC or DSP circuits in low voltage systems with severe limits on signal voltage levels. The device includes a number of smart design features including a high input resistance analog input with a broad input range of 1.6 V. The output drivers offer variable output drive strength (with sample rate and supply) giving well controlled digital edges to reduce noise and ease external circuit design. The feature set will be of high interest in a wide variety of applications especially battery portable equipment. Key applications for the ADC08100 include: digital communications, handheld and general instrumentation equipment, Cable modems medical imaging etc. A power-down function reduces power consumption to just 1mW in the power-down mode.

ENGINEOUS SOFTWARE LAUNCHES ISIGHT 5.5

Morrisville, N.C. — Engineous Software Inc., provider of the award-winning integration, automation, and design improvement software iSIGHT and related strategic services, announces the release of iSIGHT 5.5. The latest version of the technology includes two additional optimization techniques, parallel processing capabilities to decrease design time, an improved Graphical User Interface, and support for the Linux operating system. “With each version of iSIGHT, Engineous provides engineers with new tools that will enable them to use the most effective engineering techniques in an easy-to-use environment,” said Engineous CEO and President Dennis Nagy. “iSIGHT 5.5 fulfills these requirements by providing users with two additional optimization techniques, while decreasing the time it takes to create an optimized design.”

The two new optimization techniques help users converge on an optimum design quickly. A mixed integer algorithm combines a hill climbing technique with a branch and bound method that allows users to find optimum solutions efficiently in discrete space. Using iSIGHT’s new sequential quadratic programming algorithm, users can rapidly obtain an optimum design by exploiting the local region around the initial design point. Both methods lead to reduced design time by requiring fewer function evaluations. Expanding upon the distributed processing functionality introduced in version 5.0, iSIGHT 5.5 introduces parallel processing capabilities, which allow users to execute simulation codes and/or multiple design techniques simultaneously. For instance, independent design points can be evaluated in parallel across a network or on multi-processor machines. The parallel execution and all supporting activities are transparent to the user; however, the process can be reviewed using a simple GUI interface. New iSIGHT capabilities also include enhanced runtime performance with a 3:1 reduction in execution time on an NT Platform. Combined with the program’s new GUI interface, the runtime performance ensures users can define their project parameters and create an optimum design more quickly and easily.

COREL LINUX OS WILL BE PREVIEWED AT LINUXWORLD

Ottawa, CANADA — Corel Corporation announced it will preview Corel LINUX OS – Second Edition, a new and enhanced version of its award-winning Linux operating system, at LinuxWorld in San Jose, California, on August 15, 2000. This will be the first opportunity for the public to view the much-anticipated Corel LINUX OS – Second Edition, which is scheduled to hit store shelves by the end of August. A not-for-charge download edition of Corel LINUX OS – Second Edition will also be available at http://linux.corel.com on August 15.

“We are really pleased with the excellent response to our award-winning Linux products so far,” said Dr. Michael Cowpland, president and CEO of Corel Corporation. “They’ve not only received strong customer support, but gained widespread recognition in the industry, putting us in the top tier of Linux vendors worldwide. With Corel LINUX OS – Second Edition, Corel is building on its demonstrated success with Linux by offering consumers greater functionality, compatibility, new features and expanded support for hardware.” Corel unveiled the first edition of Corel LINUX OS in November 1999 and, since then, it has enjoyed widespread acclaim. Corel LINUX OS has won 10 industry awards, including the World Class Award for Most Promising Software Newcomer from PC World. Corel will also provide a public demonstration of CorelDRAW Graphics Suite for Linux at LinuxWorld on August 15. CorelDRAW Graphics Suite for Linux is a world-renowned illustration, photo-editing and painting suite now available on the Linux platform which delivers incredible flexibility and a comprehensive collection of design tools, productivity features and Web features. It is scheduled to hit store shelves later this summer.

COMPAQ AND LINUXCARE DEBUT LINUX JUMPSTART! CD

San Francisco, CA — Linuxcare, Inc., a recognized leader in providing comprehensive professional services and solutions for Linux and open-source technologies, has teamed with Compaq Computer Corporation through the Compaq Solutions Alliance program ( http://www.compaq.com/csa ) to vastly simplify Linux installation on Alpha servers with the introduction of Linux Jumpstart! CD. The new CD quickly configures the server to boot Linux on most Alpha-based systems. Traditional installation of Linux on Alpha hardware has required detailed knowledge of commands to prepare the system. Linuxcare developed the Linux Jumpstart! CD for Compaq customers to automatically install most Linux distributions on an Alpha server via an intuitive graphical user interface (GUI). Designed to be used by novices and advanced users, the CD allows the administrator to select their level of involvement in the setup process. In addition, the CD can be used to rescue and reboot a damaged system.

“As companies consider where Linux fits best in their enterprises and in their development strategies, the new Linux Jumpstart! CD removes installation headaches as a factor in the decision-making process,” said Carl Ramsey, world wide director, Compaq Solutions Alliance. “Linuxcare is the right partner for this project because it demonstrated the expertise and distribution neutrality necessary to satisfy the diverse needs of our customers.” Upon start-up, the CD prompts the user to select an installation mode ranging from “Express” for quick and easy set-up to “Step-by-Step” and “Advanced” for systems administrators that prefer more options. The Linux Jumpstart! CD automatically partitions the hard drive and sets up environmental variables needed to boot the operating system. Used as a rescue utility, the CD provides the tools required for an advanced user to see and change what is on their hard drive, boot a Linux kernel directly from the CD and perform other basic administrative functions. Available immediately from Compaq free of charge at http://www.linuxalpha.compaq.com/jumpstart/ , the Linux Jumpstart! CD has been initially tested on DS10, DS20, XP1000 Alpha systems with popular Linux distributions, including Debian and Red Hat.

SIEMENS LAUNCHES STARTUP FOR PEER-TO-PEER INTERNET

Berkeley, CA — Siemens Technology-To-Business (TTB) Center announced a new spin-off, WebV2, an infrastructure software provider for peer-to-peer networking (P2P). WebV2 will enable the commercial use of peer-to-peer networking with a new technology platform for complex interactions and negotiations. “This next-generation P2P approach goes well beyond simple file searching and sharing that ventures like Napster and Gnutella focus on. Think B2B collaboration between peers in the supply chain, or direct knowledge exchange within enterprises,” said Steve Stephansen, WebV2 CEO. So far, content and commerce on the World Wide Web have revolved around the established web server-centric model, WebV1. The next generation Internet will have applications, appliances, and PCs interacting and accomplishing work directly with one another, bypassing central servers.

In recent months, WebV2 has completed a robust architecture needed to cope with the inherent complexity of commercially viable peer-to-peer solutions. Its innovative platform is based on networked intelligent agents, drawing from the team’s experience in years of applied research and development within Siemens projects. The startup has acquired the significant underlying technology from Siemens. Co-founder Donald Steiner is also the president of the Foundation for Intelligent Physical Agents (FIPA), the international standards setting body for agent technologies. “WebV2 will unleash the peer-to-peer power of the Internet. Siemens wants this exciting startup to be a stellar success, driving the P2P revolution,” says Arding Hsu, president of the Siemens Technology-To-Business Center where the company’s founders created the foundation for the new venture. WebV2 has just formed a high-caliber management team to take its leading-edge P2P technology and expertise to the market: Steve Stephansen, CEO and President; Dr. Donald Steiner, Co-Founder and Vice President, Product Development; Michael Kolb, Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer; and Arno Hesse, Vice President, Marketing and Business Development. For more information, please visit http://www.webv2.com .

SANDSTONE RELEASES VISUAL PARSE++ VERSION 4.0

La Jolla, CA — The award winning visual programming tool, Visual Parse++ version 4.0, is now available. New to version 4.0 is extensive XML support. Visual Parse++ is now the only tool developers will need for XML parsing and processing, on any platform, and in any major programming language. Also included is support for several XML technologies, including XML, XPath, XPointer, XSLT, and XQL. Visual Parse++ brings visual programming technology to parsing techniques — programming methods used to manipulate and control information. Parsing technology has traditionally been restricted to compiler and interpreter applications because of the difficulty of using the utilities lex and yacc, or their derivatives. Visual Parse++ changes all this with an easy to use visual interface that novices as well as experts can leverage to learn and use parsing technology effectively in their applications. For internet technologies, such as XML, an easy to use parsing developer tool is a must.

“For standards based parsing and processing of XML and the XML related technologies, only one tool is needed, Visual Parse++,” explained Bill Donahue, president of Sandstone. “Developers can get enormous productivity gains through visual programming, and Visual Parse++ extends this paradigm to parsing technology.” Visual Parse++ works by allowing the programmer to develop a parser in a visual environment, while he/she watches. This highly interactive development environment allows the developer to experiment with different designs quickly, perfecting the application long before any code has to be written. Visual Parse++ has the broadest programming support of any tool in its class. It provides full support for C++, Java, C, Delphi, and ActiveX (Visual Basic). All support is native to the chosen environment. New to version 4.0 is our embedded OS API. It’s a tiny, fully functional, ANSI C API designed specifically for embedded systems. The C++ and Java class libraries are fully portable to any platform, including Unix platforms, making Visual Parse++ an outstanding multi-platform, multi-programming language solution for any developer. Now, Visual Parse++ designed parsers can run in any environment, in all the major programming languages. Visual Parse++ also fully supports DBCS and Unicode. Visit http://www.sand-stone.com for more information.

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