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ALISO VIEJO, Calif., May 1, 2002 -QLogic Corp. (NASDAQ:QLGC),the
company who simplifies storage networks, today introduced
best-in-class Fibre Channel support for the IBM Fiber Optic
Connection (FICON) protocol. Support for the FICON protocol
has been integrated into the ISP2300 Series of single-chip
Fibre Channel controllers for higher performance and reliability.
With support for 255 buffer credits, the SANblade* QLA2300
Series HBAs can connect FICON at distances of up to 500 kilometers,
more than four times farther than competitive HBAs with 64
buffer credits. "More than 64 buffer credits are required
to provide optimal 2Gb performance in supporting the 20-100
kilometer applications required by the FICON specification."
This makes QLogic the only host bus adapter (HBA) vendor to
support small computer systems interface (SCSI), Internet
Protocol (IP), Virtual Interface (VI) and now FICON protocols
with the same Fibre Channel HBA.
"FICON is a booming market, and one that it's important
to play in," said Steve Duplessie, founder and senior
analyst, Enterprise Storage Group. "The growth rates
may not be as high, but the money and the need is there. A
single adapter that supports all these protocols really should
be an attractive alternative."
"Superior efficiency and connectivity will make FICON
become the channel of choice for next-generation MVS storage
offerings and StorageTek is properly adjusting its portfolio
to support that development," said Jill Kenney, StorageTek
corporate vice president, Worldwide Marketing and Corporate
Strategy. "We are developing a native FICON Interface
for the highly regarded StorageTek T9840B tape drive as announced
on February 25. Utilizing QLogic's 2Gb fabric-aware silicon
with FICON protocol support fully exploits the latest SAN
infrastructures and most popular Fibre hardware components."
About FICON
FICON maps ESCON over Fibre Channel for links much longer
than standard Fibre Channel, creating a special requirement
for extended credit buffers. According to IDC, about 25 percent
of the worldwide storage area network (SAN) market was FICON/ESCON
based in 2001 and the storage market for FICON/ESCON connected
SANs will exceed $1.5 billion in 2004.
QLogic SANblade Host Bus Adapters
The QLogic SANblade family of host bus adapters is designed
to address IT and OEM issues, supporting a broad range of
topologies and customers' application-specific requirements
with a common hardware interface platform, software management
suite, driver interface and sales channel. The SANblade family
currently consists of board-level solutions based on Fibre
Channel, InfiniBand and iSCSI. SANblade was created to simplify
SAN design, acquisition and deployment with all QLogic SANblade
products engineered around a standard, common driver interface
(CDI) so developers can migrate between topologies with minimal
investment and bring new-technology products to market quickly.
About QLogic
QLogic Corporation (Nasdaq:QLGC)
simplifies the process of networking storage for OEMs, resellers
and system integrators with the only end-to-end infrastructure
in the industry, consisting of award-winning controller chips,
host bus adapters, network switches and management software
to move data from the storage device through the fabric to
the server. QLogic designs and produces solutions based on
all storage network technologies including SCSI, iSCSI, InfiniBand
and Fibre Channel. A member of the S&P 500 Index, QLogic
was recently ranked number 25 on Forbes' Best 200 Small Companies
and number 20 on Fortune's 100 Fastest Growing Companies.
Note: All QLogic-issued press releases appear on the company's
web site (www.qlogic.com).
Any announcement that does not appear on the QLogic web site
has not been issued by QLogic.
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