SHORT TAKES

INTEL TO ANNOUNCE TWO NEW CELERON CHIPS

San Francisco, CALIF. – Intel Corp. will announce its fastest-ever Celeron microprocessors that are slated for personal computers costing less than $1,000 and cited research claiming that it has 94 percent of the U.S. retail market for cheap desktop PCs. Santa Clara, Calif.-based Intel is introducing two Celeron chips, one running at 766 megahertz and the other at 733 megahertz. Both use Intel’s 0.18 micron manufacturing process, which allows the company to fit more transistors onto a single chip and to get more of them out of a single silicon wafer. According to a research firm Intel hired, 94 percent of the computers sold that cost less than $1,000 each use the Intel Celeron process, said NPD Intelect.

Intel’s chief rival, Advanced Micro Devices Inc., since the introduction of its speedy Athlon processor, has been successfully competing against the chip giant for more than a year now, by focusing on the performance of its chips. AMD currently has the fastest chip on the market. In the past, AMD has sought to win against Intel by selling chips that offered nearly comparable performance but at a substantial discount to Intel’s, in the range of 25 percent. AMD, based in Sunnyvale, Calif., now has its own low-cost chip out, called the Duron, which is gaining in popularity among PC makers. Nine of the top 10 PC makers use AMD chips in its computers, with the sole exception of Dell Computer Corp.

AMD DROPS MUSTANG

San Diego, CALIF. — Officials at Advanced Micro Devices Inc. confirmed that the chipmaker has eliminated the Mustang microprocessor from its future plans, but said the firm still plans to field a chip for workstations and servers. Mustang isn’t currently on our roadmap, said a spokesman for AMD, Sunnyvale, Calif. But we think that the AMD-760 MP chipset, with its dual-processor capability, will be an excellent offering for the server market. It was not clear whether or not the Mustang name had merely been removed in favor of the desktop Palomino chip, or whether the change implied a more fundamental revision. In a meeting with analysts last Thursday, company executives positioned Palomino, a successor to the Athlon, as both a desktop processor and a candidate for 1- and 2-processor servers. Mustang’s still a product, the spokesman said. “If the market needs it and wants it we can bring it back.”

Palomino, together with Morgan and Mustang, were designed to be next-generation derivatives of the Athlon core, with differing amount of on-chip cache optimized for different markets. Executives at AMD’s analyst meeting on Thursday said that both Palomino and Morgan would also feature microarchitectural improvements designed to improve performance. In August, AMD President Hector Ruiz said that AMD would introduce five new processors between Nov. 15 and Feb. 15, including Mustang, with on-chip caches up to 2 Mbytes; Palomino, which was originally slated to include 256 Kbytes of on-chip cache; and Morgan, which was slated to include a 64-Kbyte cache. Friday, the AMD spokesman declined to comment on the attributes of Mustang or Palomino, stating that AMD had only said publicly that Mustang was to offer up to only 1 Mbyte of cache. He declined to comment on Palomino’s features. What is known is that AMD will begin pushing into the 64-bit market during the fourth quarter of 2001, when the company readies Clawhammer for introduction in the first quarter of 2002.

ATTO DEBUTS EXPRESSPCI FC 3300

Amherst, N.Y. — ATTO Technology, Inc., a worldwide manufacturer of Fibre Channel and SCSI storage connectivity solutions, will unveil the ATTO ExpressPCI FC 3300, a new 2-Gigabit, 64-bit PCI to Fibre Channel host bus adapter at Comdex Fall 2000. The adapter was specifically designed to meet the demanding throughput needs of server and Storage Area Network (SAN) environments. ATTO will showcase the FC 3300 during Comdex in booth L1677 at the Las Vegas Convention Center, November 13 – 17. The FC 3300, developed to support the next generation of SAN requirements, is ideal for high-speed data transfer between a multitude of storage devices and a wide range of hosts. This PCI-to-Fibre Channel host adapter supports 2-Gigabit performance, allowing data to be moved at 400 MB/sec. in full duplex mode. With a complete driver set, support for arbitrated loop, point-to-point and direct fabric/switch attach, and development under strict adherence to ANSI FC-AL, FC-PLDA and FC-FLA specifications, the FC 3300 provides speed for an unprecedented number of configurations.

“We designed the ATTO ExpressPCI FC 3300 to provide the highest data transfer rates available for today’s Fibre Channel-based SANs,” said Peter Donnelly, ATTO Fibre Channel Host Adapter Product Manager. “Like the rest of our Fibre Channel adapters, the FC 3300 is intended to give an IT Manager the freedom to best configure their SAN.” With support for all Fibre Channel topologies and an extended driver set, the FC 3300 fulfills the needs of the Enterprise. Illustrative of ATTO’s commitment to bringing the benefits of SANs to a wider audience was their announcement of expanded driver support for their entire Fibre Channel family of host bus adapters. Windows 2000, Windows NT, Windows 95/98, Solaris, Linux, Netware, SCO Unix, UnixWare and Mac OS are supported by ATTO. “Fibre Channel products from ATTO provide the highest performance and can be used in the widest range of applications,” commented ATTO Director of Marketing, Don Bauch. “Whether you are configuring a SAN for a small workgroup running Mac and NT or are involved in weaving the fabric for your entire Enterprise using Solaris and Linux, ATTO ensures the high-speed connection.”

QLOGIC UNVEILS FIBRE CHANNEL INFRASTRUCTURE

Aliso Viejo, CALIF. — QLogic Corp., unveiled the industry’s first and only end-to-end 2 Gigabit storage area network (SAN) infrastructure, consisting of highly scaleable products ranging from single-chip PCI-Fibre Channel controllers and host adapter boards for server and storage end nodes, to cost-effective edge switches for work groups, and high port count director class switches for enterprise-class data centers. QLogic 2 Gigabit switches and host adapters will be demonstrated in the Fibre Channel Industry Association (FCIA) booth L3215 at Fall Comdex in Las Vegas, November 13-17, 2000. Aimed at solving the SAN market’s biggest challenges, interoperability and management, QLogic delivers a suite of 2 Gigabit building blocks that are pre-tested for interoperability and administered by a complementary SAN management software platform. This broad range of high-performance 2 Gigabit products, all available from a single vendor, allows OEMs, VARs storage service providers (SSPs) and end-users to build cost-effective, plug-and-play SANs that are centrally managed and highly available.

“Time-to-market is key for OEM market success. It helps enormously when you can start with components that are pre-qualified with each other and available together,” said Robert Gray, a research director with IDC. “QLogic’s 2 Gigabit Fibre Channel strategy has two key strengths – early out of the box, and a coordinated host adapter and switch release. It is a demonstration of QLogic’s leadership strategy within the storage interconnect market.” “IT professionals can be challenged by the complexity and cost required to manage SANs consisting of multiple point products at the host, switch, storage and application layers,” said Jan Jentz, director of strategic SAN solutions marketing and programs, VERITAS Software. “QLogic’s 2 Gigabit technology combined with VERITAS SAN solutions address these customer issues by delivering a new generation of interoperable, centrally managed SAN solutions.” The SANbox2 family includes 16 and 32 port edge switches for fabric connections to servers, storage devices, directors and other switches on the SAN. SANbox2 products offer double the throughput speed and twice as many ports in the same form factor as existing 1 Gigabit switch products. QLogic’s 2 Gigabit switches have the capability of networking storage at distances in excess of 100 km and offer extended multi-stage fabric capabilities, scalable to over seven million nodes. For more information about QLogic and its products, contact QLogic Corp., http://www.qlogic.com .

NVIDIA DELIVERS GRAPHICS FOR WORKSTATIONS

Santa Clara, CALIF. — NVIDIA Corporation announced that Compaq Computer Corporation now offers the NVIDIA Quadro2 MXR workstation graphics processing unit (GPU) for the Compaq Deskpro Workstation AP250, Professional Workstation AP550, and Professional Workstation SP750. The Quadro2 MXR offers many advanced features for professionals, including NVIDIA’s TwinView architecture for dual-display support, Digital Vibrance Control (DVC) for fine-tuned workspace color adjustment, and the NVIDIA Shading Rasterizer (NSR) that enables single-pass advanced per-pixel shading, as well as software optimizations for Adobe Photoshop, AutoCAD, 3D Studio MAX, Maya, SoftIMAGE/3D and more. “NVIDIA is proud to be the graphics supplier to Compaq, one of the world’s largest workstation companies,” states Dan Vivoli, senior vice president of marketing for NVIDIA. “The advanced graphics functionality and performance of the Quadro2 MXR GPU provide Compaq users with an affordable but incredibly powerful workstation solution.”

The Quadro2 MXR graphics solution, one of several NVIDIA-based GPUs featured in Compaq PCs and workstations, can be purchased through Compaq’s web site, Partner Direct, or agent programs. Within the coming months, Compaq also plans to make NVIDIA’s high-performance workstation accelerator, the Quadro2 Pro, available to its customers as a configure-to-order option. Compaq’s Deskpro and Professional systems workstations offer maximum power to professional users demanding high performance for design and content development applications. The Compaq Deskpro line features Intel Pentium III processors, and the Professional line supports multiple Intel Pentium III or Pentium III Xeon processors. Combining the processing power and capacity of Compaq workstations with the advanced graphics functionality of the Quadro2 MXR system-including 400M pixels per second rendering, 25M triangles geometry processing power, and 2.93GB per second memory bandwidth – produces the ideal solution for the mainstream design professional. For more information, please visit http://www.nvidia.com .

MACMILLAN ANNOUNCES LINUX-MANDRAKE 7.2

Indianapolis, IND. — Through its exclusive relationship with MandrakeSoft, Macmillan USA announces the retail release of Linux-Mandrake 7.2 with three new products: Linux-Mandrake Complete 7.2, Linux-Mandrake PowerPack Deluxe 7.2 and Linux-Mandrake 7.2 Professional Suite. Whether you’re a new user or a seasoned Linux professional, one of these products is right for you. With value-added features and support, coupled with unparalleled ease of installation and configuration, Linux enthusiasts will marvel at the latest enhancements included in Linux-Mandrake 7.2. Productivity-enhancing, automated administration tools, enhanced printer support, and an entire suite of graphical interfaces, combined with new utilities, office applications, games and updated security applications, create a complete and powerful graphical operating system.

Linux-Mandrake 7.2 makes all of its system administration tools easily available through the DrakConf application, which now includes more user-friendly utilities for creating custom menus. And, in a first for a Linux distribution, the Common Unix Printing System (CUPS) is made available for more efficient single or networked printer administration. Users can also customize their desktops, choosing from several graphical interfaces. For office productivity, the new release includes both StarOffice and Koffice integrated office suites, as well as an updated Linux Library, and a multimedia tutorial to guide you through common topics. “Macmillan is pleased to continue its relationship with MandrakeSoft, as we provide together value added products, services and distribution for the most comprehensive Linux package available on the market today”, said David Brinkworth, Macmillan USA’s VP of Mass Markets and Software Sales. “The fact that major corporations are embracing these Linux products, and that retail demand for new Linux releases continues to grow at such high rates further validates the open source community’s contributions and MandrakeSoft’s leadership in creating what is simply a better operating system.” Linux-Mandrake has established itself as a leader in the Linux arena, ranking first in U.S. retail sales with more than a 30% market share (PC Data, July 2000) and earning Linux Magazine’s Editor’s Choice Award for Leading Client Distribution (Linux Magazine, September, 2000).

MAXTOR NOW SHIPPING DIAMONDMAX PLUS 60 IN VOLUME

Milpitas, CALIF. — Maxtor Corporation announced volume shipments of the DiamondMax Plus 60, a 20 Gigabyte (GB) per disk, 7200 rpm hard drive. This latest addition to the DiamondMax Plus family is now shipping to Maxtor’s worldwide distribution and retail channel partners. “Maxtor is the first company to ship, in volume, a 7200 rpm drive with up to 60 GB on just three disks,” said Mike Cordano, Maxtor’s vice president of worldwide sales. “The demand for our performance ATA hard drives continues to grow as our traditional customers move to faster processors and new customers start to use ATA hard drives for their enterprise storage needs.” The DiamondMax Plus 60 combines Maxtor’s high-performance, high-capacity features that can easily handle a wide range of performance applications including gaming, video, Internet and multimedia. The hard drives are also finding increasing use in traditional SCSI-based applications because of compelling advantages in simplicity and cost.

“Maxtor’s strategic focus on the high-end desktop segment is successful because of precise execution. Maxtor is continually at the leading edge of the market, as evidenced by being one of the first to ship 7200 rpm drives with 20 GB per platter,” said Dave Reinsel, senior analyst from IDC. “We anticipate that its business will continue to expand as 7200 rpm desktop drives become more pervasive.” Maxtor Corporation is a leading supplier of information storage solutions. The company’s current products include the award-winning DiamondMax and DiamondMax Plus line of hard disk drives for mainstream and high-performance personal computers and consumer electronics applications, as well as the DiamondMax VL line for entry-level PCs. Maxtor also offers the MaxAttach family of network-attached storage servers. More information about Maxtor and its products can be found at http://www.maxtor.com .

EMULEX DEMONSTRATES PCI-X FIBRE CHANNEL TECHNOLOGY

Costa Mesa, CALIF. — Emulex Corp., a leading supplier of Fibre Channel host adapters, Friday announced it is demonstrating PCI-X Fibre Channel technology at this year’s Comdex show in Las Vegas, Nov. 13-17, 2000. Utilizing IBM Microelectronic Division’s 133 MHz PCI-X bridge chip and 2 Gb SFF fibre optic transceiver, Emulex’s demonstration highlights the functionality and performance of PCI-X technology in Fibre Channel storage area networks (SANs). Emulex is showcasing its PCI-X technology in the Hilton Convention Center, Room 11 (HRM 11). “Emulex is positioned to benefit from the increased performance and connectivity of PCI-X and we will continue working to support this emerging technology,” said Tom Reeves, director of Storage Networking products, IBM Microelectronics. “Our PCI-X bridge chip provides the features and performance needed for future PCI-X systems.”

PCI-X is an extension of the widely used PCI system bus standard that doubles the performance and host adapter slot count of today’s 66 MHz PCI bus standard. With a 133 MHz bus speed, PCI-X provides up to 1 Gigabyte per second of bandwidth to the I/O subsystems. “PCI-X provides added capabilities that Fibre Channel-based enterprise SANs require. Our technology demonstration highlights Emulex’s commitment to delivering leading-edge technology to our customers,” said Mike Smith, vice president of Worldwide Marketing at Emulex. “Our relationship with IBM Microelectronics enables us to accelerate product development cycles and bring PCI-X-based solutions to market quickly.” Emulex offers a broad family of Fibre Channel products designed to address the needs of mission-critical enterprise applications. The company’s market-leading host adapters deliver world-class performance and unmatched interoperability for loop and switched SANs, and provide a unique combination of features, including: – full fabric support using F_Port and FL_Port connections – buffered-data architecture to support up to 100km cabling – hardware context cache for superior fabric performance – support for concurrent use of multiple protocols (SCSI, IP, FICON and VI) – end-to-end parity for high data integrity – full-duplex data transfers for up to 400 MB/s bandwidth

CIPRICO TO PARTICIPATE IN 2 GB DEMONSTRATION

Minneapolis, MINN. — Ciprico Inc. announced their participation at Comdex Fall 2000 in Las Vegas, Nevada, November 13-17,2000, with the 7000 RAID storage solution in a 2 Gb Fibre Channel SAN demonstration with QLogic in booth LN238 at the Las Vegas Convention Center. Ciprico’s SAN ready 7000 storage solution is part of a SAN demonstration showing interoperability between QLogic’s 2 Gb technology and other key components such as Ciprico’s Fibre Channel storage solutions. Three Ciprico 7000 solutions will be delivering data that is sent through a 2 Gb switch into a 2 Gb host adapter card, provided by Qlogic. The data is then sent to multiple IBM Intellistation Z workstations running an IO Meter.

QLogic is a leading Storage Area Network (SAN) infrastructure provider, supplying the broadest line of SAN connectivity components in the industry. With interoperability a large concern to customers who are investing in a SAN solution, Ciprico, as well as QLogic, is committed to developing the latest technologies that can perform seamlessly with other components across heterogenous platforms. The 7000 has proven itself through performance in several SAN applications. This solution brings a performance edge into a SAN environment by being able to transfer over 95 MB/sec with a single array. The embedded arbitrated loop and fabricated switching methods optimize product interoperability across multiple platforms. Ciprico’s Professional Services group has qualified the 7000 on a variety of hubs and switches from numerous vendors such as QLogic. “With the increasing adoption of SAN applications into heterogenous environments, Ciprico continues to focus on developing, testing and integrating interoperable products,” said Ciprico Product Manager, Stacy Kelly. “QLogic’s expertise in developing leading SAN components complements our storage solutions in SAN applications.” Ciprico designs, manufactures and markets high-performance direct-attached and networked storage solutions, including intelligent disk array hardware, software and services. Ciprico storage solutions are designed for visual computing applications ranging from high-speed image data capture, through processing and analysis, to real-time playback at sustained performance levels. Ciprico is headquartered in Minneapolis, MN. More information about Ciprico is available on the World Wide Web at http://www.ciprico.com .

ZZYZX INTRODUCES FIBRE CHANNEL STORAGE SOLUTION

Las Vegas, NEV. — Zzyzx Peripherals Inc., a leading manufacturer and distributor of innovative SAN disk and tape storage solutions, workstations, and peripherals for UNIX and NT environments, announced its new RuggedRAID FC, a Fibre Channel SAN-ready RAID array optimized for the most extreme military and industrial environmental conditions. Zzyzx will preview the new solution in its booth throughout Comdex (Fibre Channel Association Booth, No. L3215 (LVCC, North Hall). This highly durable system is ruggedized for the rigorous conditions typically found in military and industrial applications. It can withstand a shock greater than 20G’s at frequency of 12-16Hz, and continue to seamlessly transfer data without fail. Its unique design is FC (Fibre Channel) from the host interface to the disk drive, offering high performance, and is built for extreme fault tolerance.

“This adds another dimension to hardware based on Fibre Channel/SAN technology,” said Steve Rosoff, president of Zzyzx Peripherals. “The military demands a certain level of survivability and fault tolerance when it comes to the systems they deploy in the field. We’re proud to provide a robust solution to meet these mission-critical needs.” The RuggedRAID FC is fully compatible with a wide range of computing platforms, including Sun, SGI, IBM-AIX, HP-UX, Linux and Windows NT. Support for other platforms will be added as tested. A list of qualified SAN components (HBA’s, switches, etc.) is available and will be expanded. The RuggedRAID FC is available through the company’s listing on the Federal Government’s GSA schedule. The RuggedRAID FC is being shown for the first time at Fall Comdex 2000, Las Vegas, and there is preliminary availability.

QLOGIC LAUNCHES SERVER AND STORAGE INITIATIVE

Las Vegas, NEV. — QLogic Corp., a leading SAN infrastructure provider, today announced the general availability of its unique host bus adapter (HBA) High Availability Package, a software module that provides complete data path redundancy in clusters and storage area networks (SANs) incorporating servers running Windows NT. The QLogic HBA High Availability Package also complements storage subsystem failover software by eliminating performance degradation associated with RAID controller failover. The High Availability Package is the first product in QLogic’s high-end server and storage initiative targeted at providing availability, scalability and performance to enterprise-class data centers. As a key component of the QLogic Management Suite software, the High Availability Package automatically re-routes data to ensure users have uninterrupted access to information on the system or SAN configuration. IT administrators can keep the system available with no interference to user applications and other system resources. Input/output (I/O) loads can be transferred back to the primary adapter without any disruption to the network.

“Storage architects have been looking to QLogic for a way to avoid a RAID controller failover during a simple line failure,” said Frank Berry, vice president of marketing, QLogic Computer Systems Group. “The HBA High Availability package responds by delivering path failover that is transparent to storage subsystems.” As part of QLogic’s initiative to deliver availability, scalability and performance to data center installations based on operating systems such as Solaris, HP-UX, IBM-AIX, Compaq True 64, and Windows NT, the HBA High Availability Package complements enterprise storage systems such as Dell PowerVault, EMC Symmetrix, Hitachi 9900, IBM Shark, and others. Featuring a desktop management interface (DMI) browser for easy and convenient managing and monitoring of Fibre Channel host adapters and their attached data resources, the QLogic HBA High Availability Package helps users reduce bottlenecks and balance the workload of SANs. It is available for all QLogic Fibre Channel host bus adapters at $499.95 MSRP. Visit http://www.qlogic.com for more information.

EXABYTE DELIVERS FIBRE CHANNEL TAPE DRIVES

Boulder, COLO. — Exabyte Corporation, a performance leader in network storage, announced its award-winning M2 (Mammoth-2) is the industry’s first midrange tape drive to incorporate direct fibre channel connectivity. This new product brings to the market performance and native fibre connectivity previously only available in tape drives costing five-times as much. The M2 native fibre channel drive improves the overall performance of a SAN and eliminates point-of-failure caused by costly fibre channel-to-SCSI bridging products. The introduction of the native fibre channel M2 means that Exabyte is the first company to solve the issue of serverless backup using a native fibre channel drive. “If you want to be a player in the SAN market today, you have to utilize fibre channel technology and Exabyte is leading the way with native fibre tape storage,” said Ken Cruden, Exabyte’s director of marketing. “Our M2 provides leaders in fibre channel the first opportunity to get their hands on a midrange native fibre tape drive. Being a leader in native fibre channel and having expertise with SAN technology, Exabyte is in a unique position to handle growing storage needs today and accommodate for new technologies around the corner.”

“The implementation of a native fibre channel tape drive in a SAN eliminates the need for additional costly hardware, such as a router, and allows serverless backup to be facilitated in the backup device,” said Jim Campbell, Exabyte’s NetStorM SAN Alliance manager. “Exabyte believes that the extended copy capability should reside in the tape drive, allowing backup and recovery to occur directly between any disk and the tape drive without an additional device taking responsibility for the data.” Exabyte’s native fibre M2, with its proven high performance, reliability and cost advantage, is perfectly suited for SAN environments and the digital video market. The M2 native drive will accommodate point-to-point, arbitrated loop and switch fabric topologies, allowing Exabyte customers to utilize the full functionality of SAN environments. For increased reliability in an automated environment, the drive also features a dual port design to allow for fail-over in high-availability applications. “The introduction of the M2 with the native fibre interface is important to the IT community because it means investment protection,” said Frank Berry, vice president of product marketing for QLogic Corporation, a NetStorM SAN Alliance partner company. “Companies are experiencing 100 percent growth in data year over year, and a native fibre interface gives them the needed headroom for growth. Fibre channel interface for SANs will be the predominate interface of the future.”

SEAGATE DELIVERS HIGHEST CAPACITY DISC DRIVE

Scotts Valley, CALIF. — Seagate Technology announced the Barracuda 180 – the world’s first disc drive to store a massive 180 Gigabytes – the largest single-drive capacity in the world. This 180-Gigabyte drive can store the equivalent of a stack of text documents that is virtually three times the height of the Empire State Building. The Barracuda 180 satisfies the requirements of large critical storage applications such as data warehousing, e-commerce, data mining, and audio/video. The Barracuda 180 also delivers a record low cost-per-gigabyte with the largest capacity ever offered on a single drive. The Barracuda 180 will ship to the distribution channel in volume during the first quarter of 2001. “As large scale enterprise and e-businesses continue to grow exponentially, our customers are demanding fast, reliable disc drives in increasingly higher capacities, and this is a challenge we are uniquely capable of addressing,” said Brian Dexheimer, executive vice president, WW Sales, Marketing and Customer Service at Seagate Technology. “For years, Seagate’s high-capacity enterprise disc drives have served as the backbone of the Internet. Now, with the introduction of the Barracuda 180, Seagate can continue to serve in this role at a much lower cost per gigabyte – all with Seagate’s famous reputation for quality and reliability.”

Already in its seventh generation, Seagate’s Barracuda family is synonymous with unmatched quality and reliability, important factors when storing business-critical information. The Barracuda 180 continues this tradition with its low idle power consumption of less than 10.3 watts, and its low acoustic rating of 3.7 decibels – making it the quietest half-height disc drive ever. Additionally, Seagate is introducing its Rotational Vibration Protection System that monitors drive movement in relationship to the cabinet or the drive mounting system and provides feedback to the drive’s servo system, reducing positioning errors resulting from rotational vibration within the cabinet or mounting system. The Barracuda 180, like all of Seagate’s high-end enterprise class drives, includes a full 5-year warranty with a Mean Time Between Failure (MTBF) rating of 1,200,000 hours. The Barracuda 180’s design is leveraged from members of Seagate’s award-winning Cheetah family, including the Cheetah X15, the world’s fastest disc drive. As a result, the Barracuda 180 is well suited for working with A/V applications. The Barracuda 180 spins at 7,200 RPM, has a formatted data transfer rate of up to 47 Mbyte/sec, and will be available in the industry-standard Ultra160 SCSI interface. For A/V-specific work, a 16 Mbyte V-code cache option will be offered. Single evaluation unit Suggested Retail Pricing (SRP) for the Barracuda 180 is $2195. Actual street pricing will vary, and will be determined by Seagate authorized resellers.

CHAPARRAL DEMONSTRATES NEW PRODUCTS

Longmont, COLO. — Chaparral Network Storage, Inc., a leading provider of intelligent storage networking solutions, will demonstrate the high performance and advanced fault tolerance of its new 2-Gigabit external RAID controller and Intelligent Storage Router at COMDEX, November 13-17, in Las Vegas. Chaparral will demonstrate the benefits of serverless backup and the high level of interoperability of Chaparral’s FS1310 and FS2620 Storage Routers with several leading serverless backup applications. Chaparral will also demonstrate the high performance of its 2-Gigabit Fibre Channel A8526 RAID controller. The A8526 RAID Controller will be shown with multiple applications giving strong indications of its high performance in throughput and IOPS (input-output per second).

“The recent announcement of Chaparral’s new 2-Gigabit RAID and Router products, coupled with the fact that Chaparral was the first to offer Ultra 160 SCSI channels, is another demonstration of Chaparral’s leadership in providing the highest performance storage networking products,” said Michael Gluck, president and COO of Chaparral Network Storage. “In addition, Chaparral was the first company to public demonstrate serverless backup, and now with the clear industry leadership in price-performance, Chaparral expects to be the storage networking product of choice for this long-awaited killer application for SANs.” According to Gluck, the FS2620 also will be the Storage Router of choice for another killer SAN application – legacy SCSI disk storage consolidation – because of the very high IOPS capability. While the figure of merit for serverless backup is megabytes/second, the figure of merit for storage consolidation is IOPS. Gluck said, “Because the base FS2620 platform is a high-performance RAID controller, it was optimized for both large block size imaging applications such as backup as well as small block size transaction-oriented applications such as database and e-commerce.” For additional information about Chaparral Network Storage, Inc. and their products visit their web site at http://www.chaparralnet.com .

CROSSROADS LAUNCHES CONXSAN

Austin, TEXAS — Crossroads Systems Inc., a leading provider of interoperable storage networking solutions, launched a family of products designed to connect data storage systems regardless of the underlying technology within storage networks. This family of products, called conXsan, will also enable the management of storage networking resources from a single location. Available today as part of conXsan, the 7100 Extended Storage Routers link companies with the information stored in a large data center complex, across metropolitan areas, or with storage facilities throughout the world.

The conXsan Extended Storage Routers will benefit organizations dealing with complex storage requirements, including storage service providers (SSPs), application service providers (ASPs), Internet service providers (ISPs), collocation service providers and Fortune 2000 Information Technology (IT) data centers. “As businesses outsource more e-commerce, storage and network management responsibilities, it is critical that the service providers manage the enormous volume of data driven into their customers’ computing systems,” said Brian R. Smith, chairman and chief executive officer of Crossroads. “The conXsan product suite was developed to address the growing needs of businesses for consolidated storage management, managing information from a single facility. conXsan products are scalable, manageable and easy to install, fitting easily into companies’ existing environments to leverage the investments they have made in storage networks.” e deltacom, a Facility Service Provider in Suwanee, Ga., has recently completed its carrier-class data center. As one of its many managed and professional services, e deltacom offers services as a Storage Service Provider (SSP). With a data center that is a quarter mile long from end-to-end, e deltacom must be able to move data on Fibre Channel networks throughout the facility. More information about Crossroads Systems is available at http://www.crossroads.com .

TROIKA PARTICIPATES IN CLUSTER DEMONSTRATION

Westlake Village, CALIF. — Troika Networks, a fast-growing private company driving the convergence of storage networking and clustering for improved availability and performance of e-business applications, announced that its Zentai Controller and SAN Command management software are fundamental elements in a Comdex demonstration of continuous availability of data over interconnected metro area networks (MAN) and storage area networks (SANs). Today’s businesses rely on fast and continuous access to their most strategic business resource – their business data. However, in unplanned outages and disasters, such as earthquakes, floods or even terrorism, this access can be easily interrupted. For this reason, the ability to physically separate data centers over great distances is a requirement to ensure the continuous availability of applications to the data. TROIKA, participating in the demonstration with Brocade Communications Systems Inc., Hitachi Data Systems, a wholly owned subsidiary of Hitachi Ltd., Nortel Networks and StorageNetworks Inc., is demonstrating a breakthrough in managing data centers over MAN distances.

The demonstration includes two servers in a Fibre Channel network separated by 70 Kilometers. A server at one location is shown running an e-mail application, while a server at a second location runs an order-entry database application. When service at the first location is interrupted, its applications begin running at the secondary location – just a heartbeat after the interruption. With no single point of failure in the entire system, observers can see first hand how to implement a powerful means of protecting their enterprises against unplanned interruptions of business operations. TROIKA’s Zentai Controller and SAN Command management software uniquely offer the ability to recover in the case of any server-to-storage failures within the MAN through its Path Command and Path Command Plus software, providing users with automated and transparent path failover/failback capabilities. Multiple paths are available for re-routing data during failover, and failback does not require human intervention. TROIKA’s Path Command software provides dynamic load balancing, which instantly and automatically selects the best data path based on current traffic conditions. More information about TROIKA and its products is available at http://www.TroikaNetworks.com .

QLOGIC ANNOUNCES FIBRE CHANNEL HOST BUS ADAPTER

Las Vegas, NEV. — QLogic Corp., a leading SAN infrastructure provider, announced availability of the industry’s first four-port Fibre Channel host bus adapter, the QLA2204. With its extra ports, the QLA2204 increases user scalability while saving precious PCI slots in server clusters and storage area networks (SANs). The host bus adapter is interoperable with hundreds of Fibre Channel devices, including QLogic’s SANbox switches. It can move data to and from the server at up to 200 MB/s. The QLA2204’s high-speed RISC processor and software interface allow it to complete multiple input/output (I/O) operations without host intervention, creating the lowest CPU utilization of any Fibre Channel adapter on the market. Made possible by QLogic’s exclusive single-chip ISP architecture, the QLogic QLA2204 is 100-percent compatible with QLogic’s existing operating system drivers so it can be integrated seamlessly into existing installations.

“Our customers have been telling us that high-port density is as important as bandwidth in the data center,” said Frank Berry, vice president of marketing, QLogic’s Computer Systems Group. “In many cases, IT departments are spending money on additional servers solely to gain the additional PCI slots they need. The QLA2204 is a cost-effective, scalable solution that solves their problem.” “In Focus Corporation’s transaction-intensive environment, we need to configure our servers for maximum connectivity,” said Ed Roberts, chief technology officer, Focus Corp. “The QLA2204 is the only solution available on the market with the port density that will allow us to configure 12 Fibre Channel ports with only three PCI slots.” The QLA2204 is part of QLogic’s initiative to deliver availability, scalability and performance to data center installations based on operating systems such as Solaris, HP-UX, IBM-AIX, Compaq True 64, and Windows NT. The QLA2204 complements enterprise storage systems such as Dell PowerVault, EMC Symmetrix, Hitachi 9900, IBM Shark, and others. QLogic SAN connectivity products control the flow of data between storage systems, tape libraries and network servers. QLogic’s QLA2200 Series host adapters are leading solutions for Fibre Channel, the crucial technology that makes large data centers possible. By moving data at rates of up to two gigabits per second to hundreds of storage devices across distances up to 20 kilometers, Fibre Channel unleashes the power of SANs.

BYNARI INTRODUCES DESKTOP COLLABORATION SOFTWARE

Dallas, TEXAS — Bynari Inc., the exclusive provider of cross-platform, Open Standards-based messaging and collaboration software for bridging the gap between Microsoft-based desktops and Unix/Linux-based workstations in the enterprise, introduced a greatly enhanced version of its TradeXCH client software application. TradeXCH (pronounced “Trade Exchange”) is an easy to use and robust application which provides collaboration, messaging and calendar management functionality similar to Microsoft Outlook for Unix and Linux-based workstations and desktop systems.

With TradeXCH, customers can: send/receive email, and manage multiple email accounts in a single mailbox; establish sophisticated filtering rules for incoming email; track and share business contacts utilizing robust contact management tools; share files/folders with colleagues; maintain multiple address books; share calendars and automatically request/schedule meetings; and track action items on a built-in “to do” list. TradeXCH supports a number of messaging protocols, enabling a wide range of platforms to work together and supporting open communications across the enterprise. TradeXCH is immediately available for desktops/workstations running X86 processor versions of Linux, and will be available soon for Solaris Sparc, Solaris X86, HP-UX and SCO UnixWare 7.1. “Our new release of TradeXCH raises the bar in the arena of interoperability and groupware capabilities for mixed networks of Microsoft Windows and UNIX users,” said Mike O’Dell, chief executive officer of Bynari. “In this release we have integrated many of the features requested by our beta test partners, enhanced our interoperability with Microsoft Outlook, and improved the reliability, speed and resource utilization over our initial release of the product two months ago. We believe this product addresses the critical need in businesses today for an open, cross-platform, standards-based collaboration capability.”

CHILI!SOFT ASP 3.6 FOR AIX HELPS SERVERS

Bellevue, WASH. — Chili!Soft, Inc., a subsidiary of Cobalt Networks, Inc. and a market leader in cross-platform Active Server Pages (ASP), announced the general availability of Chili!Soft ASP 3.6 for IBM’s AIX operating system. Chili!Soft ASP for AIX provides a developer-friendly, highly powerful Web application framework for service providers, Web hosts, portals and corporations who build their businesses around the Web. Chili!Soft ASP for AIX is available for evaluation and purchase from the Chili!Soft Web site, through Cobalt Networks’ direct worldwide sales force or through IBM and IBM Business Partners. For Web development and hosting convenience, Chili!Soft ASP 3.6 now comes with a Quick Start Bundle option that includes a complete server-side ASP application development and hosting environment. With the time-saving bundle installed, customers achieve immediate market-readiness with Chili!Soft ASP, the Apache Web server, FrontPage 2000 Server Extensions, and the dBase database.

“Web hosts and service providers on the profit trail need to attract and accommodate the dynamic content produced by ASP programmers, Windows-based developers and world class tools like Microsoft FrontPage 2000 and Macromedia Dreamweaver UltraDev,” said Chris Hogan, general manager of Chili!Soft. “We’re proud to offer the advantage of our new Chili!Soft ASP Quick Start Bundle that instantly creates a new hosting service that can in turn be offered to these customers.” Service providers and developers can utilize Chili!Soft’s new browser-based, user-friendly Administration Console to configure and administrate their ASP enabled server. Additional features include multi-byte character-set support for internationalized content, and newly expanded searchable documentation. Chili!Soft ASP 3.6 for AIX retails for $1,995 for 1 processor, $3,995 for 1-4 processors and $6,995 for Unlimited processors on a per-server basis. Upgrades are free for customers with Support and Maintenance contracts. Otherwise, upgrade pricing ranges from $895 to $3,145. Chili!Soft ASP 3.6 for AIX is available for purchase online at http://www.chilisoft.com/securesales/ . Free evaluation copies can be downloaded from http://www.chilisoft.com/downloads/ .

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