Corporate Liaisons: Virata Joins OpenDSL Industry Initiative. LSC And ZZYZX Sign Agreement. Tektronix To Support IPU’S Standard.

August 11, 2000

SHORT TAKES

VIRATA JOINS MAJOR OPENDSL INDUSTRY INITIATIVE

Santa Clara, CA — Virata Corporation announced that it has joined some of the largest players in the DSL market to establish the OpenDSL Industry Initiative. Members of the initiative include: DSL equipment and chip manufacturers 3Com Corp., Cayman Systems, Inc., Cisco Systems, Inc., Efficient Networks, Inc., GlobeSpan, Inc., Intel Corp., Netopia Corp., Texas Instruments, Inc., Virata Corporation, Westell Technologies, Inc. and Xircom, Inc.; systems and computer integrators KPMG Consulting, LLC, Pomeroy Select Integration Solutions, Inc. and PricewaterhouseCoopers; and service providers Alltel Corp., CAIS Internet, Inc., Digital Broadband Communications Inc., Hanaro Telecom, Network Plus, Qwest Communications International Inc., Request DSL, SBC Communications Inc. and Vectris Communications. “Virata has become a leader in the DSL market through its product innovation, customer base and involvement in industry-standard initiatives such as OpenDSL,” said Mike Gulett, Virata’s president and chief operating officer. “We are extremely pleased to be teaming with other industry leaders in the OpenDSL Initiative, which we believe will help establish long-term DSL industry standards and ensure ease-of-installation and affordability for the mass market.”

The OpenDSL Initiative has two main objectives: 1) to gain industry-wide acceptance and standardization of an open software specification that will automate the configuration (or set-up) of customer premise equipment (CPE) and network elements, and 2) to ensure true, plug-and-play interoperability between multi-vendor DSL modems and routers. To promote DSL equipment openness throughout the industry, the OpenDSL initiative will create a third-party certification program through which vendors can test and certify their equipment for interoperability. OpenDSL testing will cover both physical- and system-level interoperability to ensure true plug-and-play connectivity. This level of testing will eliminate the need for other time-consuming and costly in-house interoperability testing programs established today by DSL equipment manufacturers and service providers.

LSC AND ZZYZX SIGN PARTNERSHIP AGREEMENT

St. Paul, MINN. — LSC, Incorporated and Zzyzx Peripherals signed a partnership agreement to deliver SAM-FS and QFS storage software to Zzyzx customers, LSC announced. The partnership will benefit Zzyzx customers that require higher performance from their UNIX file system and the ability to manage their growing data assets without the pain or increased costs associated with adding hardware and administration. “We see Zzyzx as a strong partner because they are the nation’s leading reseller of Tatung SPARC workstations and offer their customers the highest level of service and support in providing total storage solutions,” said Brad Balogh, President, LSC Incorporated.

“Because SAM-FS and QFS provide users with scalable, reliable and secure data management, plus the ability to drastically improve the performance of their hardware investment, we believe this combination will allow us to reach Zzyzx’ customers looking for high performance UNIX solutions.” Steve Rosoff, President of Zzyzx said, “Our company has a firm commitment to building high-availability, fault tolerant storage solutions. We focus on developing solid partner relationships with technology leaders like LSC in order to provide our customers with the most advanced, sophisticated solutions.” SAM-FS provides users with an advanced Solaris file system that offers complete transparency between the file storage system and the application, nearline storage and archive management, integrated volume management, immediate and automatic data protection, automated, flexible policy management, scalability and true data sharing in SAN environments. QFS is a high performance file system that minimizes administrative overhead and provides the benefits of raw disk speed. It can be implemented as a stand-alone file management system, or integrated with LSC’s core storage management product, SAM-FS, for a complete online, near-line, and offline storage management configuration. Visit http://www.zzyzx.com or http://www.lsci.com for more information.

TEKTRONIX TO SUPPORT ITU’S INTEROPERABILITY STANDARD

Beaverton, ORE. — Tektronix, Inc., a market leader in test, measurement and monitoring instrumentation, announced it is the first company to announce test support for the new stringent International Telecommunications Union (ITU) STM64 standard for eye-pattern testing. This standard helps to ensure that ultra-high-speed communications equipment and networks can function together as the Internet’s backbone. By supporting this new standard, Tektronix’ solutions enable telecommunications equipment manufacturers to test to the new ITU STM64 benchmark for equipment operating in the 10 Gigabits per second (Gb/s) range – the fastest network speeds being widely deployed today. “Tektronix’ CSA8000 Series is the first publicly-announced test solution that provides our customers in the Zone – high-speed communications equipment manufacturers – with comprehensive test and measurement capabilities that ensure their equipment complies with the ITU’s stringent standard for 10 Gigabit/second transmission,” said David Churchill, vice president, Instrumentation Business Unit, Tektronix, Inc. “By staying attuned to the market, Tektronix was able to anticipate customers’ needs, and is providing them with the most up-to-date test tools needed to ensure their products meet evolving global communications network and Internet interoperability standards.”

The CSA8000 is part of the 8000 Series family of sampling oscilloscopes that includes the TDS8000, and a full complement of optical and electrical sampling modules. Together, these products replace Tektronix’ 11801C and CSA803C sampling oscilloscopes. The 8000 Series provides comprehensive measurement capabilities with bandwidths of up to 30 GHz (optical) and up to 50 GHz (electrical). With exceptional vertical resolution, a fast update rate and a Windows user interface, the 8000 Series is a powerful measurement system for high-speed optical communications, and TDR characterization of circuit boards, IC packages and cables and semiconductor testing.

BLUESTONE TO POWER SGI’S MANUFACTURING SYSTEMS

Philadelphia, PA — Bluestone Software, Inc., a leader in business-to-Web and wireless technologies, announced that SGI, provider of high-performance computing and advanced graphics solutions, has selected Bluestone Total-e-Server, the Application Server edition of Bluestone’s comprehensive, J2EE- and XML-based Total-e-Business platform, as the e-business infrastructure to power its mission-critical manufacturing systems. Selected from a group of nearly a dozen candidates, Bluestone’s Total-e-Server will replace an aging legacy shop floor management system that facilitates manufacturing of mid-range to high-performance computer systems in two locations and supports more than $2 billion in annual revenue. The Bluestone platform will tie together various desktops, database servers and enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems. This is the first of several SGI manufacturing applications to be converted to a three-tier, Web-based architecture using Total-e-Server.

The Bluestone system provides complete compliance with industry standards, ensuring platform independence for SGI and avoiding the technological obsolescence associated with proprietary solutions. Total-e-Server also meets SGI’s demanding performance requirement, which at peak times, requires SGI’s existing shop floor application to handle hundreds of thousands of transactions per day. To sustain maximum manufacturing productivity, each transaction must occur in less than a second. Total-e-Server also enables SGI to interchange data in real-time over the Internet with other business partners–a more timely and cost-effective means of data exchange than using traditional Electronic Data Interchange (EDI). “Bluestone’s flexibility, `can do’ attitude, and high level of commitment to demonstrating the extensive capabilities of its software led us to trust them with the conversion of our mission-critical manufacturing applications to a Web-based architecture,” said David Fairbanks, information systems director for SGI. “In addition to Bluestone offering an exceptional product, the company’s pricing model is easy to comprehend and very fair. This combination gives us a solid foundation for re-deploying our manufacturing systems to a more cost-effective, scalable computing model.” Visit http://www.bluestone.com for more information.

ETRUST SOLUTION TO SECURE EBUSINESS SERVER PLATFORM

Tokyo, JAPAN — Computer Associates International, Inc. (CA), a leading eBusiness solutions provider, announced that NEC Corporation (NEC), Japan’s largest computer and server manufacturer, is integrating CA’s eTrust Intrusion Detection with its Express 5800 line of servers. The integration of CA’s leading security solution will create an unparalleled offering to secure eBusiness computing environments for NEC customers. Equipped with CA’s eTrust Intrusion Detection, NEC’s newly enhanced server series is focused on supporting enterprises that are geared towards eBusiness with Internet-based mission critical applications. The integration of eTrust Intrusion Detection enables NEC customers to maximize enterprise productivity through comprehensive manageability while maintaining the peace of mind that comes with knowing their computing environments are secure.

“As a result of recent denial of service attacks to numerous major Web sites, many eBusiness customers are recognizing the necessity to deploy a comprehensive security solution,” said Tatsumi Nishi, NEC’s divisional vice president, computer software division. “We chose to combine CA’s eTrust Intrusion Detection with our Express 5800 server line because we determined that CA provides the most complete security solution available. We anticipate that our partnership with CA will play a significant role in helping expand the eBusiness market in Japan.” eTrust Intrusion Detection delivers state-of-the-art network protection including protection against the deployment and execution of Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks – an essential capability at a time when networks are susceptible to an increasingly sophisticated array of attacks. eTrust Intrusion Detection includes an integrated anti-virus engine with automatic signature updates. This solution takes the “detect, alert, prevent” approach to safeguarding networks – providing real time, non-intrusive detection, policy-based alerts, and automatic prevention. Other protective capabilities include enforcing business use policies through dynamic URL blocking and logging. For more information, visit http://www.ca.com or http://www.nec-global.com .

INTEL JOINS CPIX FORUM

Santa Clara, CA — Intel Corporation has joined the Common Programming Interface (CPIX) Forum, an industry group devoted to defining and promoting common application programming interfaces (APIs) between network processors and other hardware and software components. “Intel has always believed that common interfaces are good for our customers and for the industry,” said Tom Franz, vice president and general manager of Intel’s Network Processing Group. “Our customers recognize the value of building networking and telecommunications equipment based on reprogrammable silicon, and they have encouraged us to take a leadership position in the development of industry specifications in this space.”

“The members of the CPIX are very pleased that Intel has decided to join the Forum,” said Dr. Colin K. Mick, CPIX executive director. “We welcome Intel’s input and participation in our work to develop common network processing APIs and to build the network processing market segment.” In May, Intel announced it was shipping two versions of the Intel IXP1200 Network Processor to networking and communications equipment manufacturers, making it the first vendor in the industry to deliver high-performance, highly programmable network processor solutions in production volumes. In addition to these and other silicon components, Intel has made significant investments in its Intel Internet Exchange (IX) architecture API s that enable network developers to rapidly create applications on Intel’s IXP family of network processors and companion chips. These APIs facilitate software portability across Intel’s IXP1200 network processors; embedded versions of the Pentium II, Pentium III and Intel Celeron application services processors; and companion chips.

PACKETEER AND COMPAQ TEAM UP

San Diego, CA — Packeteer, Inc., a leading provider of Internet application infrastructure systems, has announced a partnership with Compaq, a leading integrator of Microsoft Exchange in the enterprise market, through their Business Solutions for Exchange (BSE) programme. The Compaq BSE programme chooses best-in-class partners to help customers enhance efficiency, improve workflow, and realise greater productivity in their Exchange environment. As a BSE partner, Packeteer offers Compaq’s Microsoft Exchange customers the first comprehensive solution for ensuring application performance over wide-area networks (WAN) through its PacketShaper product family, which is targeted at enterprise and Internet Service Provider (ISP) customers. PacketCare, the company’s new customer service and support programme, is also included in the BSE package. “The BSE programme is a key element of Compaq’s Knowledge Management & Messaging strategy, enabling us to provide best-of-breed solutions from our key partners,” stated Lex Dekkers, Compaq’s director for Knowledge Management & Messaging Solutions Group. “Packeteer’s PacketShaper and PacketCare will enable us to offer more complete solutions for the Microsoft Exchange messaging platform to support mission-critical applications.”

“This strategic partnership with Compaq showcases the market-leading technology and competitive value add of our application infrastructure solutions and services,” said Craig Elliot, president and CEO of Packeteer. “As a BSE partner, Packeteer brings application performance to Compaq’s extensive customer base, who depend on them to provide reliable business solutions.” Packeteer’s PacketShaper product series and PacketCare will be available immediately to Compaq customers through Compaq Global Services organisation. The PacketShaper family of bandwidth management solutions, optimises application performance over WANs and the Internet. PacketShaper discovers and classifies applications on the network, analyses traffic patterns and measures response times, enforces policy-based bandwidth allocation and implements service-level agreements (SLAs), and generates reports on application behaviour. The PacketShaper product family includes the 1500 series, which supports up to 2 Mbps; the 2500 series, a modular platform that supports up to 10 Mbps; and the 4500 series, a high availability and modular platform that supports up to 45 Mbps. The 4500 with factory-installed ISP Edition software is available for service providers.

LIONBRIDGE TEAMS WITH COMPAQ, UNISYS & MICROSOFT

Waltham, MASS. — Lionbridge Technologies, Inc. announced that its VeriTest laboratories will be opening the sole authorized certification program for enterprise-level applications running on Microsoft Windows 2000 Datacenter Server, under the auspices of Microsoft Corp., on equipment sponsored by Unisys and Compaq. The new program builds on top of the Certified for Microsoft Windows Server program, with rigorous additional testing for the Datacenter environment. The Certified for Windows program, operated by VeriTest worldwide, continues to see high demand from software vendors, with 112 applications now certified. The Windows 2000 Datacenter Server operating system from Microsoft is designed for large-scale line-of-business and enterprise dot-com backend usage. Datacenter Server scales from 1 to 32 processors and up to 64 gigabytes of RAM, and provides maximum reliability and availability for Windows-based server applications-including four-node clustering and 32-node network load balancing.

“We are very pleased to announce that we are expanding the Certified for Windows 2000 program to include testing for applications running on Datacenter. Microsoft is appreciative of the support of Compaq and Unisys in this effort,” said James Ewel, marketing vice president, IT Infrastructure and Hosting Solutions Group at Microsoft. “Windows 2000 certification establishes the highest technical standard to identify applications that are secure, manageable and run reliably on the Windows 2000 platform. We also benefit from the close cooperation and support from applications vendors who are participating in the beta development of our test procedures at VeriTest.” Compaq has worked closely with Microsoft and VeriTest to ensure that the certification program goes well beyond the application test to include provisions for ISVs delivering the levels of reliability and stability enterprise class customers expect in their data center environments. Compaq will be the exclusive sponsor of 8-Way server configurations within the labs for the next 12 months, and has provided a variety of equipment including its ProLiant 8500 servers, massive amounts of storage and a wide range of networking gear for the worldwide labs. In addition, Compaq will be encouraging application certification as part of its joint support queue with Microsoft.

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